Myrtil's Mess

At the Mountains of Madness - a H.P. Lovecraft tribute

2014-08-18T11:50:00.000+02:00

Every year, in Second Life, a Festival in honour of the famous dark fiction writer H.P. Lovecraft is organized by the Second Life's HP Lovecraft Roleplay Group (HPL-RPG), around his anniversary date of birth.

This year, the Festival will take place from today, Monday 18th at 7pm SLT (that's 4am for Europeans, 3am for UK...) until August 25th at 6pm SLT.
Once again, all of their fund raising efforts will go to their charity of choice, Autism National Committee (AutCom).

This year will be a little more special because on top of all the fun rides, merchants arcade, stage shows and hunt planned, there will be a thrilling interactive experience thought as a tribute to Lovecraft's terrifiying tale "At the Mountains of Madness".
Take a ride from the vendor/events area towards adventure in Antarctica and below... And discover the horror that lies in the depths of the frozen landscape.

Jimmy Branagh mastered the creation of this chilling tribute and since I saw it I can tell you it is absolutely amazing!
Make sure to use the advised lighting settings to enjoy fully the experience (requires basic and atmospheric shaders, Advanced Lighting Model, shadows on with sun/moon + projectors, and use the "[TOR] NIGHT - Nocturne" environment settings sky).

Find here the Festival's website, with landmark to the welcome area.

Also, you can get there from the hidden temple in New Babbage, if you are a worthy Cthulhu worshipper (click the part of wall that covers the corner on your right to enter the temple).

Rickety Weasels roleplay at Fantasy Faire - Summary of the events

2014-05-10T10:37:00.000+02:00

In Wiggenstead Mooring, in a shipwreck hidden by the jungle, live a group of feral kids who call themselves “The Rickety Weasels”. They ferociously protect the four Guardians of the Elemental Stones, which keep the balance of the Fairelands.

Rickety Weasels

(picture by ひゅうが (Pokute Burt))

Little do they know that, no far from there, the Shadows are growing stronger and greedier, and that their leader, The Dark Shadow, covets the Guardians of the Elemental Stones. For the Stones could give him Power, and into Darkness plunge the Fairelands forever.

Who are they?

Rickety Weasels
The Rickety Weasels are more commonly known as the wild children. They come from near and far, but none agree on how they got here or why. One day, they were simply there. No one knows where they came from, and the Rickety Weasels aren’t offering to tell.

Rickety Weasels

They are playful, and always looking for someone to have fun with. They are mischievous and enjoy playing pranks on the visitors who come to their land, but never mean to offend.
They know that their world is held together by the Elemental Stones. These stones are Earth, Fire, Air, and Water and are watched over by four Guardians. The Weasels see it as their duty to also protect the Guardians themselves in their task.
They are mainly land dwellers and linked to the Fire Stone, but also count in their ranks a few merkids, who are linked to the Water Stone.

The MerKids

Guardians of the Elemental Stones

Earth
Strifeclaw, the Guardian of the Earth Stone, is a Dire Panther almost as large as a horse. She spends most of her time in nature surrounded by the animals that answer to her element and removed from the prank-loving, fire-wielding wild children.
All the animals that can’t swim or fly are linked to the Earth Stone.

Strifeclaw – Guardian of the Earth Stone

Water
Miranda, the Guardian of the Water Stone, is a playful, but distrustful young Mermaid. She usually keeps to her waters and avoids large groups of strangers, but enjoys the chaotic nature of the wild children.
Mer-people and all the animals that can swim are linked to the Water Stone.

Miranda – Guardian of the Water Stone

Fire
Firefly, the Guardian of the Fire Stone, was burned horribly as a wild boy and survived. He was chosen by the Fire Stone to act as its Guardian and was reborn like a Phoenix. He continues to live with the other wild children, playing their games and enjoying his second chance.
The Rickety Weasels, goblins and trolls are linked to the Fire Stone.

Firefly – Guardian of the Fire Stone

Air
Avariel, Guardian of the Air Stone, is a Unicorn who is often very befuddled. She comes and goes with the wind, and even she does not know where it will take her. She is the newest guardian and is not entirely sure why she was chosen. She is just happy to see what adventures this new wind has to offer.
Fairies and all the animals that can fly are linked to the Air Stone.

Avariel – Guardian of the Air Stone
(picture by Avariel Falcon)

The Dark Shadow
The Dark Shadow has delved in the dark arts for decades in the hopes of conquest. He knows if he can get his hands on the Elemental Stones he can use them to take over the world with his dark powers with minimal effort.

The Dark Shadow

Shadows

Shadows

(picture by Jimmy Branagh)

The Shadows serve The Dark Shadow as his private army. They serve him because they have been promised fortune and glory in his New Empire. Because of these promises they come from near and far to see his plans through.

Shadows

Another Shadow

Beltaine

Beltaine is one of the most important ceremonies for the Guardians and the wild children. On that night, all four Guardians must come to a ceremony prepared by the children to perform a hallowed ritual celebrating the Spirit of Summer and renewing of Nature.

~ ~ ~

Thursday May 1st 2014

The Dark Shadow's pirate radio call

Friday May 2nd 2014

Beltaine invitation

Saturday May 3rd 2014

Beltaine ceremony gone wrong

Sunday May 4th 2014

News report from Wiggenstead Mooring

Monday May 5th 2014

Avariel got captured! Rescue mission planned

Rickety Weasels vs Shadows : Final Battle

Rickety Weasels roleplay at Fantasy Faire 2014

2014-04-28T17:36:00.001+02:00

So Jimmy and I have been asked to develop a roleplay for Fantasy Faire this year and we've come up with the Rickety Weasels idea.

Basically, they're a bunch of feral kids who protect the four Guardians of the Elemental Stones and fight against the Shadows who try to capture the Guardians to serve the nefarious purpose of their boss the Dark Shadow.

More details can be found on our page on the Fantasy Faire 2014 blog.

Our roleplay will run from May 1st, when the Fantasy Faire starts, until May 5th, with two big events planned for Friday May 2nd and Monday May 5th, both at 1pm SLT.
We'll still be around after that, until the Faire ends on May 11th, for casual free-form roleplay, flash mobbing, etc.

Check out the Fantasy Faire blog and come visit the wonderful original sims created by SL designers. All merchants will have at least two items in their stores to be sold for RFL (Relay for Life) of Second Life and their will be fun occasions to pay kiosks as well for RFL.

Aether Salon Sunday April 27th 2014 - Chirurgia !

2014-04-25T10:02:00.004+02:00

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Babbage%20Palisade/256/50/106

This is going to be interesting, and entertaining. You'll wish you were there :)

Grand Opening of Cooger and Dark's The Chamber of Horrors

2013-09-03T16:57:00.002+02:00

And to continue with the announcement of events to come, you should not miss the Grand Opening of Cooger and Dark's The Chamber of Horrors , located in the Wax Museum in Babbage Square, right across the City Hall and not far from the train station.
This will take place on Friday, September 20th and the awesome Sinji Itokawa will be DJing for the occasion, from 2pm to 4pm SLT.

(Jimmy Branagh is the artist behind all the wax figures/mesh displays, OOCly, and you absolutely need to come and check by yourself how talented he is.)

(Poster by Jimmy Branagh)

Even if you can't make the Grand Opening, you should still come and visit anytime !

You can reach the Chamber of Horrors by walking all the way through the Wax Museum and turn left at the bar, to enter the cobwebs-laced tunnel that will lead you to the Chamber. At the opposite corner of the Chamber, you can find the store and get your own mesh statuette (there are also freebies for people in the Steampunks of New Babbage group!).

Escapades Third Anniversary

2013-09-03T16:43:00.003+02:00

This week-end, starting on Friday 12pm SLT with the traditional Goony Adventure, will be the Third Anniversary of Escapades island, which used to be Goony Island.

Find below the list of events scheduled for the occasion :

Friday 6th September
• 12pm SLT - Goonies Adventure - The Search for Tepic
• 2pm SLT - Founders Tea party - Special invite only

Saturday 7th September
• 11 am SLT - Airship Brawl Trophy Competition - Teams of two battle it out to be the last ones flying.
• 1pm SLT - Pirate Party - Hosted by Gemini Enfield - Possible tavern Brawls.
• 3pm SLT - Special RP Event - Rise of the Cubes.

Sunday 8th September
• 12pm SLT - The Extreme Whale Trophy Race - A race around the island.
• 1pm SLT - Goonies Beach Party
• 3pm SLT - The Final Mega Brawl - Loki throws everything he's got in his inventory at the goonies testing their resolve and the SL Platforms stability.

Do come and join us to celebrate, it's lots of fun!!!

Above the clouds still shines the sun

2013-06-06T16:15:00.001+02:00

- I don't remember much about my early childhood, Fly started. From what I've been told, I was found in the Vernian Sea, clung to a piece of broken wood, as a child of about seven years old. Apparently I had been involved in some kind of accident and that may have caused my memory loss.

- You really don't remember anything at all? I asked.

- Just a few things, with no connection one to another. As if my brain was a unicolor chess game. I remember living in New Babbage and flying in the sky, and I remember having a younger sister and playing in a park with her, but I don't recall her name or even mine.

- I thought your name was Fly, I intervened.

- Not my birth one I'm afraid. The sea pirates who found me called me like that because I was so fascinated with everything flying.

- So the pirates picked you up and kept you as a prisoner? Did they want to ask for a ransom or something like that?

The boy's face relaxed in a smile while the gaze of his green eyes softened.

- No, I became one of them. Their Captain's daughter was feeling very lonely on board and she begged her father to adopt me to have a little companion to play with. Granted she was already seventeen at the time, but she immediately took a liking to me and would have given hell to her father if he hadn't complied with her demand. And this is how I became Captain Copperfield's adoptive son.

- Oooh, so you’re a pirate! I concluded.

- That I am, nodded Fly. But I’ve only been one for eight years. Still, that’s my life now.

- I’ve been an orphan for eight years too, I informed him, tilting my head pensively. But I was living on the streets of New Babbage, not on the seas.

The boy glanced at me sharply :

- You must know the City quite well then?

I pulled a face, raising my eyebrows :

- I used to, I sighed, but I’ve been away for so long. It must have changed a bit.

- It can’t have changed that much, Fly assured. It’s a City after all, the streets and buildings won’t move around on their own.

- Well, there’s a high rate of demolition over there, I explained. So new buildings appear every week.

- I see, replied the pirate boy in a perplexed tone. You might still be able to help me find my way around there though, if you agree?

- Of course! You helped me, I’ll help you. What are you looking for, there? I asked, glancing at him.

- Ah, I’ll tell you the rest of my story, and you’ll understand.

I moved slightly, sand sliding softly beneath me, to settle down into a new sitting position and focused back on the boy across the fire.

- So I had been adopted by the pirates' Captain, and that was quite a nice life I must say, Fly continued. I was like a kind of mascot for them I think, and they taught me how to become a true little pirate. One was teaching me how to tie sailor knots, another how to juggle with a flick knife, and someone did show me how to whistle loudly using my fingers. I quickly became able to climb up the mast and was staying in the look-out for hours, watching the seagulls around me, wishing I could fly like them. I was happy, even if I didn't remember everything from before my accident. But my happiest moments were spent with Amnelys, Captain Copperfield's daughter.

- She's the friend you were talking about? I asked while snuggling Flynn, installed on my lap.

- Yes, he confirmed. She is the one. She's a very pretty girl and she was spoiled by her father. She was used to get everything she wanted and would never take "no" for an answer. I can't blame her for that since I think I owe her my life. Without her insistence, I would have never been taken care of like that and they'd have killed me, or left me to the sharks.

Fly paused, gazing absent-mindedly into the fire, and I did not dare speaking up to ask for the rest of the story. After one or two minutes, he sighed and looked at me :

- She's stubborn, you see.

I nodded to encourage him and he went on :

- Almost one year ago, we moored the ship in Port Babbage undercover and we spent a few days in the City for some business my father had to deal with.

Fly shook his head with a sad expression on his face :

- That was a very bad idea. Amnelys and I went for a walk in the streets, looking at everything in amazement. That was the first time we were allowed to run freely in such a big city and it was all new for us. At some point, we managed to escape the attention of the pirates our father designated to look after us and we got lost in a narrow alley behind a big brick building. We were about to walk back to where we came from when a man stepped in and stood in front of us, blocking the alley. I could see in a glance that he was not the nice kind, in spite of his elegant costume and pleasant face. There was something fake about him. But Amnelys thought otherwise and she returned his smile when he grinned at her. I placed myself between them and frowned at the man, asking him to let us pass, but my sister put her hands on my shoulders and giggled, telling the man to pay no attention to me, that I was just a child. And then the newcomer grinned again, in that fake charming way, and he started smooth talking her, saying how beautiful her shiny eyes looked under the dim light and all that kind of nonsense. I was waiting for Amnelys to tell him off and grab me by the arm to go back to the ship, but instead, I saw her blushing and acting all smitten-like. Next thing I knew, he was taking her "for a stroll" and she told me to go back to the ship.

- You should have punched him, I stated knowingly.

- I would have! Fly protested. But she didn't let me... She just shooed me off like a cumbrous insect and wouldn't hear anything from me. What could I do...?

The boy's shoulders slumped and his voice lowered :

- I ran back to the main street, somehow found my way to the Port and went to warn our father. He immediately came with me and a few of his men to bring his daughter back, but we looked everywhere and could see no sign of her. The night was getting darker and so we went back to the ship. We were supposed to leave in the morrow, but the Captain delayed our departure until we would find Amnelys. The day after, we searched again the streets of the City, with no luck. We were starting to lose hope, and my father was becoming moody, with fits of anger directed against me for having failed to protect his daughter.

- But that was not your fault! I interjected.

- I don't know, Fly whispered. Maybe I should have insisted for her to come back to the ship with me.

- She didn't let you, I retorted. She wanted that.

- Either way, for my father, I was guilty. Although she did come back, after two days.

- Did she? I raised my eyebrows, relieved.

- Yes but only to tell her dad that she wouldn't come back to live on the ship. That she was staying with that man in New Babbage, that she loved this guy and that nothing could make her change her mind.

I glanced at the cabin boy, astonished :

- What did he do, then?

- We left her behind, Fly announced, gloomily.

- You what?

- I told you she was stubborn, the boy explained in a blank voice, looking up at me. Even her father had to surrender. We left, and all the blame fell on me once again. The Captain has never been the same after that. He became cranky, nasty, locked himself up in his cabin for hours and beat me on a regular basis. We went back to New Babbage a few months ago, again for his business affair, and he sent his best men around to find her. Which they did.

I glanced at him in expectation, uncertain about the way his story would unfold.

- So they brought her back this time, I suggested doubtfully.

Fly shook his head :

- No, they did not. They came back to their Captain and explained with great caution how she had started working for that New Babbage man as a whore and how she had refused to go back to the ship, saying she didn't want to see her father anymore as he wouldn't understand.

I held my breath, observing him with concern.

- So the Captain shot dead one of his messengers and shouted orders to leave the Port at once. He had always been the short-tempered sort, but he was becoming downright mad since Amnelys' departure. And she wasn't there anymore to control him.

Fly's gaze wandered over the sea.

- I hope Davy Jones won't have too much trouble dealing with him, he concluded humorlessly.

I turned my eyes towards the sea as well and watched in silence the glittering of the stars' reflection on that dark moving mirror.

After a few minutes, I turned back my head towards him and asked softly :

- So that is why you want to go back to New Babbage? To find her?

Fly nodded slowly.

- I'll help you, I affirmed. We'll rescue her.

I smiled at him cheerfully and he smiled back faintly.

We then decided it was time to sleep as we would have a lot to do the day after, starting with finding a way to leave that island.

In the morning, we gathered every piece of wood we could find, all the barrels and crates coming from the sunken ships that had been washed ashore, and we started assembling them into a raft.

Satisfied with our work, we had a bit of breakfast with apples and clear water we were lucky enough to find in the remnants of the wreck, and then we hopped on our homemade vessel to start our journey back to New Babbage. We had made up a paddle with a pole and a piece of plank and were taking turns to maneuver it.

Neither of us had a compass of course, so we agreed on finding our way through the position of the sun in the sky. It did go well for most of the day and we were progressing swiftly, but the sun disappeared behind a curtain of thick clouds on the way down from its zenith.

We waited for about half an hour, looking worryingly up, but the cloud layer was getting darker if anything. I put the paddle down and sat on a crate, letting the raft drift away, rocked by the waves.

- How will we find our way when the sky is that cloudy? I lamented.

Fly wrinkled his brow, glancing at me helplessly.

Suddenly, something fell onto my foot and I yelped in surprise.

- Flynn! I exclaimed, identifying the cause of that mischief.

I stretched down to pick my squirrel up with one hand, grabbing the stone he had pushed outside my small belt bag with the other hand.

- You're a naughty critter, I scolded him softly. That hurt you know!

- What is it? enquired Fly, eyeing the stone with interest.

- That was part of the cargo of the airship I sneaked on in Steelhead, I shrugged. I think it's called a sunstone, they got a lot of those over there.

- Show me? he asked, stepping closer to the crate I was sitting on and laying his hand in front of him, palm upwards.

I raised the stone up to his hand and suspended my move abruptly.

- Wha... started Fly.

- Wait! I interrupted him incisively.

I raised my hand higher to make sure that what I had a glimpse of was real and gasped :

- The sun!

- The sun? echoed the pirate boy, arching an eyebrow.

- The sun, I repeated with excitation, glancing at him. I can see it! Here, through the stone!

I handed over the polished piece of rock to him and watched, as he lifted it up against the cloudy sky, realization painting itself on his face.

- I wonder how it works, I asked myself aloud.

- Who cares! Fly whooped, starting a little dance. We can see the sun! We're saved!

I giggled at his dance though holding firmly the sides of the crate as the raft was swaying dangerously.

Thanks to the stone, we managed to follow the sun's course in the sky and stop sailing in circles. I could feel we were getting closer and closer.

I inhalated the invigorating marine air and thrilled at the subtle change in smell that was growing more and more sooty. The clear line where the sky meets the sea was beginning to blur and a grey cloudy smudge suddenly appeared, bristling with needles of steel and brass.

- New Babbage! I exclaimed, overcome by emotions at the sight of the familiar clocktowers and airships silhouettes standing out against the setting sun-tinted smog.

I started paddling faster, along the rythm of my heartbeats.

Finally, I was back.

The Great Escape

2013-05-31T12:44:00.001+02:00

I had time to think during all those months in the sky. To think about a great escape plan of course.
While living among the pirates, I could observe them and make for myself a pretty good idea of their qualities and flaws.

For example, they enjoyed drinking. A lot. Alcohol I mean, no water, it would make them rust, as Davy-Three-Ears was saying. But I could not use that to my advantage because most of them could stand it and keep drinking all night long without getting into this blurry phase where pink twin air krakens would be flying all around the ship.

Another point was their greediness. The more they stole, the more they wanted, and sharing was always a tense moment, when everyone was eying their neighbour to make sure they wouldn't get a bigger portion of the plunder than themselves. This, maybe, could be used against them.

Stemming from that, lots of them were very short-tempered and quick to draw a pistol or a sword as an argument against their opponent in a verbal fight. And usually, that was resulting in a death or two as they were all quite good shots. You would think it meant that the crew was slowly getting thinner, but some new recruits were regularly acquired during the raids, and even though they were not as skilled as their predecessors, they would soon be going through a sped-up training to keep the high standard.

I was also considered as a new recruit, eighteen months ago, but the Captain had big plans for me. I was the smallest on board and had proven my ability to sneak around unseen (well almost), and this made him think I would be more useful during special raids on highly protected buildings into which one could enter only through spyholes of some sort or tiny sewer plugs.
I did go on a few raids like that, and my role was to get in, disengage the security system and unlock the main door to let the others in, without getting caught. I would also do the look-out on other missions, hidden in a bush nearby.

I know what you think, that I could have escaped a thousand times while being left alone during those raids. But what you don't know is that the Captain was a clever brigand. He may have spared my life, but he was no fool and knew I would take the first occasion to run away. He had noticed Flynn perking from my pocket and understood how much I cared about him. He had taken him as a hostage on the grounds that he would be happier to stay in his cabin with his own falcon pet, assuring he would make sure they did not fight.

I was tied up, could not leave Flynn behind even if I had a chance to get off the ship.
That complicated the matter a bit, but I was not giving up hopes yet. I would need to craft my plan more carefully and maybe count on Chance to give me a little help.

That help came a few days later under the shape of a sea pirates' ship.

Sir Hawker (the Captain made us call him "Sir", even though he definitely did not deserve that title) enjoyed nothing more than coming upon sea pirates ships to cast fear and terror on the unsuspecting crew. He believed that the huge shadow drawn by his airship onto its sea-bound counterpart was a last sight every sailor would be happy to die with. He also claimed that it was their duty somehow, to assist natural evolution by destroying the less adapted pirates, for the air riders were the ultimate step in piracy.
Thus, after hearing reports of a pirates ship cruising beneath us, he got naturally overjoyed and started shouting orders to prepare for the fight. All the men jumped on their feet straight away and ran merrily towards their post, as they loved their Captain and were happy when he was.

Soon enough, the airship was diving down onto the floating vessel, canons loaded and ready to fire. For the occasion, the Captain had even offered me a beautifully carved dagger "to finish off the wounded" he said with a toothy grin. I noted, though, that he did not entrust me with a firing weapon. I guess that is how he became a Captain. By flattering his men, giving them an important role, but cautiously enough not to give them too much power. That is what I would do anyway! Others would say he became a Captain by killing all of those who disagreed with him. Well, that was probably the case too...

Anyway, thanks to Sir Hawker's glorious mood, I now owned a blade, and to top it all, I had learnt that we were actually flying above the Vernian Sea, New Babbage strong as ever waiting for me to cross the water between us. Thousands of ideas began to take shape in my mind as to how I could use this weapon to cut open a road to freedom, but I had the time to develop none of them for a loud "bang" resonated suddenly, followed by a dangerous swaying of the airship.
Everyone was sent rolling onto the deck, and I could hear the Captain cursing harshly. The ship down there had shot their cannons right at us, even before we could do it ourselves.
For the first time in his life, Sir Hawker was being challenged with fierce resistance from one of his preys.

Another "bang", and the airship was sent quickly sinking right onto its opponent without anything we could do to stop it. I could see pirates sliding down the deck and falling over board, screaming, or being rolled over by cannons that were not tied up correctly and were giving a hand to gravity by gathering at the bow of the ship.
I did slide too, but could find a pole to cling to and I managed to climb on it, tightening my grip in foresight of the shock that would shake the ship when we would reach the sea.

The shock did happen and was a violent one. The bow of the airship cut deep into the seaship, creating huge splinters all around, and drilling a hole in the other side, through which water came flooding in. Our ship then broke in the middle, its bow still pinned up to the other one, and its stern falling backwards on the sea pirates' ship's own stern in a mess of flying pieces of wood and metal.
I was on the stern part and could see Sir Hawker sliding down the bow part to land smoothly onto the deck of the other ship, a pistol in each hand, ready to meet the sea pirates who were approaching. Nobody was paying attention to me, they were all too busy fighting, and I took the chance.

I ran in direction of the Captain's cabin, which luckily was located on the stern, and slammed the door open. Scanning quickly the room, I spotted Flynn, curled up against the bars of a little cage secured by a chain hanging from the ceiling, Sir Hawker's falcon standing right outside the opposite edge of the cage and eying him with interest.
I hurried towards the chest of drawers they were installed on and waved my dagger in front of me to scare off the bird of prey. He stared at me, his golden eye challenging me, but backed off a little when I cut the air right before him. Flynn was now jumping up and down in his cage, chattering excitedly, while I tried to open the lock with the tip of my knife. It did not resist long to my recently achieved skills and I could soon cuddle my little squirrel under the disapproving glance of the Captain's falcon.

When I got out of the cabin, Flynn hiding in the little bag hanging from my belt, there were flames everywhere. I could hear screaming and gunshots on the deck below us, but all of it was smothered by the roaring noise of the progressing fire.
I darted back inside to pick up a piece of fabric that I held in front of my nose and mouth before running through the smoke, my left hand clutching my dagger. I jumped over the bodies and barrels, eyes blinking from fire-induced tears, trying to find my way in the middle of the chaos.
My idea was to find a raft of some sort and jump into the sea before getting killed by the fire or a pirate. I eventually managed to reach the bottom ship, slaloming around the obstacles, avoiding the fights, but my run was suddenly interrupted. Two of the masts had fallen either side of me, gigantic flames engulfing them, and in front of me, the deck was taken into a storm of whirling brands, making it impossible for me to go on. The spot was becoming very dangerous to stay in and I was wondering how to find a way around it.

- This way! A voice called from behind me.
I turned abruptly to notice a lean silhouette beckoning me over through the suffocating smoke. I did not really have time to think twice and I started into that direction, hoping I was not heading right into another trap.
The silhouette revealed to be a cabin boy, just a few years older than me, certainly coming from the sea pirates ship. We did not have the time to talk as everything was crumbling down around us, and I followed him through a maze of burning crates and ropes hanging across our way until we reached the ship's rail. He grabbed a barrel, miraculously spared by the flames, and threw it overboard before jumping after it. I climbed up the rail and looked down. The sea was not as far as I had thought, the ship having sunk quite a bit already, but I was dreading the maritime depths and it took the cry of warning the teen gave me to glance above my shoulder and dive before a scruffy pirate could catch me.

Upon entering into contact with the water, I closed my eyes, pinching my nose, and then paddled hard to come back to the surface and take a deep breath, spitting to get rid of the strong salty taste on my tongue. Still kicking to stay afloat, I reached swiftly for the little bag on my side and released a coughing Flynn to perch him on my shoulder.
- Here, the pirate boy said, holding onto one side of the barrel he had thrown into the sea.
I wrapped my arms around the opposite side of it, right in time for a big wave to take birth from the sinking ship and carry us with speed far away from the disaster, before leaving us bopping on top of calmer wavelets.

- Well, that one wasn't my fault... I muttered, clinging to the floating barrel while both ships were disappearing into the blaze, painting dusk into warm tones of scarlet and brass.
- What did you say? Asked the boy, tearing himself from the contemplation of the wreck to look at me.
- Oh, nothing important, I replied. What's important is, what are we gonna do now? I underscored, looking at the water surrounding us.

- There is a small island we just passed by with the ship, he informed me, his eyes scanning the sealine behind me. It must not be very far from where we are. Let's just swim into that direction and hopefully we'll find it.

- Which direction? I asked, raising my eyebrows.

- Oh, there it is! He exclaimed. I can see it. Look!

I turned my head and squinted but it was hard to distinguish anything in the growing darkness.

- I'll take your word on it, I declared, glancing back at him.

After a few dozen of minutes that seemed to last hours, paddling with our legs, the barrel held in front of us like a buoy, we finally reached the shore of the small island.

The beach was of sand, and we both stayed laying there for a while, exhausted, the waves coming to die at our feet.

Suddenly, a loud explosion noise made us jerk up from our rest to see the blazing sky and sea speckled with flying pieces of ships. The fire had certainly reached the cannon powder storeroom. It was even surprising that it did not happen earlier. Startled, Flynn had jumped on my shoulder and was now hiding in my hair, curled up against my neck. His fur was wet and it made me realize that I was frozen stiff.

- I'll look for wood, the teen said, getting up on his feet. We can light a fire then.

I nodded, bracing myself while the cold air on my humid skin was sending shivers down my spine.

It did not take long until the young cabin's boy came back from the edge of the forest lining the beach with a few logs rested on his forearms. Just long enough for me to wander around and collect some dry-looking high herbs covering a dune nearby.

He crouched on the sand and installed the logs in a pile, spreading my herbs beneath it, before taking a look around. I reached for the little bag hung on the side of my belt and brought a small metal box out.

- You're looking for that? I suggested, handing him over the box.

He glanced at me, perplexed.

- You've got matches in there?

- Yep! I affirmed. That's a special box, they shouldn't be damp inside.

The boy's face lightened up and he took the box.

- That's pretty handy!

I smiled, watching him open the box and picking up a match from inside :

- Yes, it's proven quite useful of late.

He lit up the match and approached it carefully to the dry herbs he had placed beneath the logs, protecting the flame against the wind with his other cup-shaped hand. The fire grew quickly and soon the logs were burning, producing a much appreciated wave of heat in the surrounding area. I sat close to it, Flynn perched on my shoulder, and glanced at my companion.

I could see him better now, in the light of the fire. He was a tall and rather skinny teen, about fifteen years old, and was wearing a big tricorn hat on top of his messy brown hair. His eyes were of a deep green, and freckles were sprinkled about his straight nose and pale cheeks.

- So, what's your name anyway? He enquired, looking at me.

- I'm Myrtil, and that one is Flynn, I introduced my squirrel and I.

The boy grinned :

- He's called Flynn? Well I'm called Fly. Well met critter!

Flynn answered with a serie of clicking sounds while enthusiastically waving his bushy tail.

- He likes you, I observed, slightly surprised.

- Of course, he does, Fly bragged. I'm very likeable.

He glanced at me :

- I remember having a sibling somewhere, who would be 'bout your age I gather. But she was a girl.

- So am I, I replied calmly.

I was used to being mistaken with a boy and did not always bother correcting my interlocutor's assertion, but this time, for some reason, I felt like it.

- Are you?

The lad looked puzzled.

- You should comb that hair of yours and wear a dress if you don't want people to think you're a boy.

- I don't really care what people think, I shrugged.

- Alright, Fly grinned. Though you'd get more luck at begging if people think you are a girl. Blond curls are also an advantage, and blue eyes of course, but you've got none of those.

He leaned backwards and squinted, as if he wanted to take a wider glance at me.

- Yeh, he concluded with a serious face. You look like some kind of small wild animal. I wonder how you managed to survive on the streets all those years.

- Well I did, I replied between gritted teeth, anger slowly rising from within. I've got lots of friends and we all look out for each other. You don't have many friends, do you?

Fly chuckled :

- Calm down, fierce girl, I was just kidding. I do have a friend, but only the one.

I looked up at him, ashamed to have let myself getting upset by what he was saying.

- You've got two now, I stated with a smile.

The boy smiled back to me.

- I've got a friend who is just like that, I admitted after thinking a bit about what he had said. Long blond hair and blue eyes. All the ladies of New Babbage swoon when he passes by.

Fly laughed again.

- It can be a blessing or a curse. You know, you're right not to let people know you're a girl. Most of the time it's far from being a good thing in this world.

I glanced at him, unsure of what he meant. His mood had seemed to darken and his gaze was lost in thoughts.

- That friend of mine I told you about, he started in a soft tone, she is a proper girl. A grown woman even now. She does have the blue eyes and curly hair, but I'd rather have her ugly and happy than pretty and...

He paused and clenched his fists.

- I hate what she's become. Even though she didn't really have the choice.

- You always have the choice, I replied instinctively. A good friend of mine told me that once...

- I wish you were right, Fly muttered, turning towards me, but you don't know what you're talking about.

I tilted my head, observing him in silence while he was brooding, eyes fixed upon the fire, light and shadow fighting gracefully about his face.

- Will you tell me, then? I eventually asked, my patience having reached its limits.

Fly broke from his contemplation of the dancing flames and looked up at me hesitantly.

- Why not... he shrugged. You might as well know. But I'll have to start the story a while back for you to understand it fully.

I looked up at the starry night sky and then beyond the fire, towards the dark sea, across which New Babbage was still standing after escaping once more one of those horrible fates that seemed to rain on her every so often.

- I am in no hurry, I assured. I've been away for more than a year, a few more hours won't make any difference. We'll have time in the morning to figure out a way to sail back to the City.

The boy nodded thoughtfully.

- Very well then, he sighed. Here's my story.

Myrtil in the Sky with Sunstones

2013-05-09T22:48:00.001+02:00

Eighteen bloody months in the sky... And Old Ones know how many more to come.

Everything had gone perfectly. I had managed to sneak into the morning airship departing from Steelhead without being seen, and had found a comfortable hideout in a corner of the food storage. I didn't think the trip would last more than one week, maybe one week and a half at the most, even if the ship seemed to be quite slow. I assumed it was loaded with heavy cargo ; didn't really have the chance to check exactly what.

I was just napping, rocked by the regular buzzing of the machines, when suddenly the ship stopped completely, as if bumping violently into something, sending Flynn, Rupert and I rolling across the storage room to go crashing upside down into a pile of crates.
"What the hell was that..." I muttered while brushing the dust off my clothes, fearing we had met some kind of giant Air Kraken.
Flynn scurried back into my jacket's pocket, his pointy ears and fluffy red tail laying low, showing that he was just as concerned as I was. I carefully collected Rupert, my second carrier pigeon, and installed him into the vast pocket on the other side of my jacket.
I was going to climb up out of my hiding hole, when a growing sound of screams and shootings inspired me to freeze on the spot.
Something was obviously happening on the upper deck. Something I might not actually want to be involved in.
I fought with myself for a few minutes, and finally my dangerous tendency to curiosity took over and led me to climb up the ladder and open slightly the hatch door.
At first, I only saw feet. Big dusty, soothy, bloody boots right before my eyes. I slowly looked up along the blue puffy trousers and the red jacket and noticed with a gasp of horror that a huge sword and two holsters on each side were hanging from the large leather belt wrapped around the pirate's waist. The ambient noise was quite loud, and he seemed to be pretty absorbed into aiming at running people with the pistols he had in both hands, so I decided to take the risk of opening the hatch door a bit more, to have a better appreciation of the situation.
I would not have recognized the ship even if I had seen it by daylight before. The deck was covered in laying bodies with streams of blood dripping from their open wounds and filthy bearded pirates neglectfully stepping right onto them to get a better shot at new victims. The sailors were falling like flies that would have been smashed down by a giant hand and I was starting to get slightly worried about what would become of my two little friends and I if the bloodthirsty sky pirates came to find my hiding place...
Carefully, I climbed back down the ladder and closed quietly the hatch door behind me, then stood in the middle of the stock room and looked around. Apart from crates of food and barrels of alcohol and water, there was not much in there that could help me putting together a brilliant escape plan. At this moment, I wished my friends were with me. It was always easier when several minds were together and we managed to come up with great ideas even in the most desperate of situations.
Suddenly, an image of Triky appeared in front of my eyes. Triky with his pointy nosed mask and sparkly mischievous eyes, a cheeky smile on his lips and a bottle lightened with fire in his hand. And then I knew what I had to do.
I decidedly walked towards a big barrel full of apples and started emptying it, throwing the fruits away until they were rolling all over the place. I then lifted the empty barrel and put it back down at the bottom of the ladder. Flynn had jumped off my pocket and while he was making the most of the laying apples, I turned towards the pile of smaller barrels of alcohol. I took hold of one and worked on the lid with my knife to weaken it. After this patient preparation, I could give a kick with my heel to smash it open and then carefully installed it inside the barrel I had just emptied. I then rummaged into my pockets to bring a small rusted metal box outside.
"Come on, Flynn!" I urged my squirrel while opening the box to pick up one of the matches.
The little rodent left the half-eaten apple behind him and jumped back into my coat's pocket, after climbing his way along my leg.
I rolled my sleeves up my arms and set to lift again the big barrel to bring it to the top of the ladder, rung after rung. That was no easy business I tell you, but somehow I did manage in the end, and found myself right under the hatch door, ready to open it and push the barrel outside.
I gathered the match I had set behind my ear and, after a fond thought for Triky, I struck it against the barrel's side and dropped it inside the alcohol. The sudden flame that rose was big enough, but the fire didn't venture yet outside of the bigger barrel and I hurriedly pushed the whole thing with all my strength against the hatch door to force it open and send the tricked barrel rolling on the main deck.
Luckily, the pirates were too busy to notice anything, and I could see my little firebomb stopping right in front of the pilot's cabin, flames escaping from the opening and starting to lick their surroundings.
When the fire began to embrace the door of the cabin, catching every little piece of wood that happened to be around, someone eventually noticed it and shouted : "FIRE!".
This triggered a big messy blur of pirates running towards the blaze to try and smother it, to no avail. The flames only grew higher and larger, dancing on the cabin's roof and climbing along the ropes, getting dangerously close to the balloon. Triky would have been very pleased indeed.
While I was admiring the inferno, the pirates were gathering everything they could and carrying it onto their own ship, seemingly ready to abandon the one they had attacked to its fate. That was my chance to leave as well. In the panic, nobody would pay attention to me.
After a bit of careful look out, I was sure that they were all too busy, and I quickly lifted the hatch door to dart out and run towards the edge of the burning ship, jumping onto the pirate's one without taking time to think about the fall I would have made if I had missed that jump. Once on the other side, I hurried towards a dark corner behind a pile of crates and kicked the rat that was hiding there to take its place.
Then I allowed myself to catch my breath.
Risking a glance through the wall of crates, I saw the pirates transferring the cargo from the Steelhead ship to their own. Some of them were storing it very close to where I was hiding and a few stones fell out of the crates, rolling behind them and stopping their course against my shoes. I picked one up and examined it with curiosity. This one was oblong, quite transparent with a hint of pinkish yellow. I pocketed it, shushing Flynn's cry of indignation to have to share his living-room with a piece of rock, and took another glance between the crates to see what was happening.
The flames had eventually caught the fabric of the balloon and the pirates had cut off all of the ropes attaching both ships together. Some of the men were pushing against the side of the burning cargo-ship with long sticks to get away quicker. The buzzing sound got progressively louder, and the pirates' ship swiftly moved away from its dying prey. I could almost see nothing of it but flames, engulfing the deck.
Suddenly, a loud bang resonated and the balloon disappeared behind a wall of red flames, the whole ship crumbling to pieces that were regularly falling down, soon followed by the main block, which whirled down into the sea with most of its cargo of sunstones.

So there I was. Hiding on the sky pirates of the North Pass' ship. Heading to some unknown destination.
Well, this did not last very long of course. They soon discovered my hiding place and while I was sure they would kill me at once, it seems that I was lucky enough to escape that fate. Their boss was happy with the cargo of sunstones and did not suspect the role I had played in their hasty retreat. Apparently he thought they were in need of a ship's boy and that I could be that one.

And this lasted until now. Eighteen bloody months rubbing the deck, giving a hand to the cook and occasionally being part of raids. Seems like I'm a good thief and they won't let me go. I guess living on the streets of New Babbage helped me to gain a skill or two.
Anyway, I sent Rupert to warn my friends that I was safe and alive, even if in the hands of sky pirates, but that they should not worry because I would find a way to escape eventually.

I'm sure I will...

Tricks from the Past

2011-11-03T01:40:00.001+01:00

This was on Hallow's Eve.

Everything was quiet in Steelhead. I had spent the week asking people around, trying to find Margo December, with no luck.
Tired and hungry, I had decided to find a place to spend the night, as it was getting dark. I would resume my quest later. I approached the entrance of the tunnels, not far from the city centre, thinking it would make a good hideout to sleep quietly.
The tunnels were looking quite dark and eerie in the night, and I hesitated.
A sound resonated in the silence, like the cry of an owl, startling me. I was ready to turn back and head towards the deserted city centre, when a huge fireball of flame lit up the entrance of the tunnel, splashing up and around the arch, like a firebomb going off. Blown away by the explosion, I fell on the side, in the grass.
The flames were already flickering away, but the atmosphere was filled with smoke, rising from the ground, and between two fits of cough, I spotted a smothered shape at the tunnel entrance.
"What... what was that?" I stuttered, while squinting to distinguish the tunnel entrance.
Slowly, the smoke cleared out, to reveal a short human shape, dressed in urchin clothes and wearing a big bakerboy hat. As he stepped forward towards me, I noticed his bare feet, and, looking up to his face, I recognized the black mask with a pointy beak that was covering it.
My heart missed a beat.
I couldn't believe what I was seeing. Him? Him! Right in front of me!
"T... T..." I hiccuped.
"Are you ok?" asked the boy. "What you doing in the mud?"
Suddenly, all the feelings that had been building up during those last two years exploded inside me and I ran to him to hug him, shouting his name.
"TRIKY!!!!"

"Hey wotchit!!'" he screamed, as I was smothering him. "You missed me then?"
My eyes were blurred with happy tears. I stepped back from him but still holding onto his arm to make sure he would not disappear again.
"Not a bit, you idiot!", I replied, sweeping away the humidity in my eyes with the back of my free hand. "How on Earth is that possible???? How are you here???"
Triky stepped back, his cheeky grin changing to a smile of thoughtful adult demeanor.
"I dont know, I... She... All I know is that I'm allowed one hour with you. A gift... I guess it's important somehow."
"One hour?" I repeated, arching an eyebrow. "That's not much!" I glanced at him, suddenly concerned. "Do you mean that you are a kind of... ghost?"
But Tricky was already darting off towards the town centre, giggling. He turned to shout back: "I GUESS THAT'S WHY THEY CALL IT THE WITCHING HOUR!"
"Dammit!" I muttered before running after him as fast as I could. "WAIT FOR ME!!!"
"COME ON I WONNA BURN SOMETHING!" he shouted back.
I couldn't help a smirk, remembering all the things that had been burnt in the past when Triky was around.
We spent the next half hour running around town, me mostly trying to stop him from burning stuff, and laughing as he was knocking on doors before running away, but in the end, we somehow found ourselves near the watermill and decided to take a break and sit by the riverside.
The moon was out and full, lighting up the river side in silver light.
I put a hand on Triky's shoulder and gave him a serious look. "Now we need to talk."

"Talk?", he replied, "What about? Arnt you having fun? Did you see the look on that guy's face when his cat ran in with its tail on fire... PFFT hahaha... i crack myself up."
I couldn't help smiling at the thought, but tried to recompose my serious face. "That was very funny and we had a really great time, but time alas is going quickly and you will soon disappear again... I would like you to tell me what you remember, what happened before you met me in front of this tunnel. You were saying "she" gave you one hour back here. Do you know who that is?"
" Oh man, ..." sighed Triky..."I dunno, it was just a feeling. I just woke up and that's the feeling i had."
I stayed quiet a few moments, to observe him closely, before asking :
"There is something else... Triky, do you remember Willard Steamweaver?"
Triky reacted at once : "But that's my name, how did you know my name?"
"Because I met you when you were an old man." I explained.
" No one calls me Willard, thats a duffuss name", he stated.
"I couldn't agree more", I nodded.
Triky frowned slightly : "Myrtil you are being strange, what's wrong with you?"
I sighed. "I would like to just play all day like you, but my friends' lives are in danger. The whole of Babbage town is in danger. And I think you could stop that, just by telling me something, but I don't know what..."
Triky paused for a moment. "This is like a dream, I'm not dreaming am I, you say I'm a ghost?"
I tilted my head , looking at him sadly, before slowly nodding. "Yes, I think you are... You must be... "
"Two years ago, you see", I continued quietly, "Willard, your other half, came back from the moon and found you. You were reunited, and you died together... I thought I would never see you again..."
"This is Hallow's Eve, and here you are, but just for one hour..." I finished, my voice trembling.
"I dont remember" said Triky softly, "but now I feel something else...I miss you, and I miss other people. I can't remember them but I miss them so much... I didn't want to go... but I had to?"
I shook my head : "No, no you didn't want to go and I don't think you HAD to! This Willard, HE wanted to die, and the only way he had to was to take you with him..."
I tried to fight back the need to cry again. "Everyone misses you Triky. I miss you every day. Every day I regret not having managed to stop that..."

"Everything has its time and place", said Tricky with a half cocked smile. "Don't be upset for me, where ever it is that I am... It feels nice, I don't feel alone."
I looked up at him, trying to find out what he was really thinking. "I... just wish it didn't happen, I don't know why it had to..."
I could not fight it any longer and started to sob silently, my shoulders going up and down, uncontrollably : "It is just so hard to lose a friend..."
I let those words die in the silence of the night.
"But..." I tried to smile, wiping my tears with the back of my hand. "But I am happy if you feel nice where you are. Just never forget that you will never be alone."
Triky smiled. "Dont be sad Myrtil, you can't change the past because the truth is you live now, right now, and right now today you and I, we had fun, because when we are together we have fun, and everytime we ever meet, we will have fun. And in the future we will have fun and burn stuff, that's if we meet in the future, because I don't know if where I am now future exists, it's all a dream to me Myrtil, it's all a dream."
As he was talking, the meaning of his words was slowly penetrating my mind, and starting to lift me out of my sadness.
I smiled back to him spontaneously and nodded softly: "You are right Triky, we will always have fun, wherever, whenever... Everytime you are here. And I am sure I will see you again, even if it is in a dream."
Triky paused, suddenly looking distant. "My time now is almost over... I can feel her."
I put a hand on his shoulder in reflex, as if to keep him back from "her".
"Wait, let me see if..." Triky lifted his hand up to his face. And for the first time, he removed his mask.

His face was very pale, with rose red lips, a small round button nose between two pitch black eyes, from within which sparkled the brightest unnatural light.
Triky leaned close to my face, innocently peering into my eyes before whispering "Look."
My own eyes widened and it was as if I was under a spell, unable to move away from his look.

As I was looking deep into Triky's eyes, my gaze went further than I ever thought possible. I felt strange, but calm, while traveling into his eyes, from the darkness towards the light. The closer I got, the brighter the light was, until it broke up into smaller globes of light. My gaze traveled closer and closer to one of the globes, to the point where I could see within the floating ball of light, what looked like a small unborn child. All around me were other globes of light, and an overall sense of calm. A sense of female compassion.
I felt like all sadness and angst had vanished, to be replaced by serenity.
Then I heard his voice surrounding me. Triky's voice, soft and loving :
"There is a time and a place for everything Myrtil, but you still got choices, the future is not set in stone."
And with a gasp, the lights lifted and I found myself alone by the river side.

I stayed sitting there for a while, thinking about it all, over and over. I knew those globes of light, I had seen them before. I smiled to the moon. After two years of confused mourning, I had eventually seen Triky again. I had been able to tell him how much I missed him, how guilty I felt for not preventing what had happened. And he had brought peace in my heart at last.

Finally rising up on my feet, I walked towards the tree my pigeon had elected as a temporary home and called softly, waking the bird from his sleep : "I have a job for you, Bob."
Dipping into my pocket, my hand found a piece of paper and a small pencil, and I scribbled a few words before rolling the paper into a really tiny tube. The pigeon stepped onto my open palm, and I installed the roll of parchment inside the small metal canister attached to his leg. "Here, bring that to the others!"
Bob took off and my eyes followed his little silhouette, growing smaller and smaller against the full moon.
I smiled again.
Tomorrow at dawn, the first airship departing for New Babbage will have a stowaway.

Leaving my hometown

2011-10-23T01:40:00.000+02:00

Things have gone too far this time and Jason Moriarty attacked Nat and Gadget with blue lightnings.
The Thirteen and Below are scheming in secret, Tepic working hard to find some equipment, and Gadget recruiting Miss Avariel's help to build the aetheric trap in which we hope Moriarty will fall...
Strange capsules have arisen all over the city, seeming to be grown from the ground, and change at dark into horrid growling monsters full of teeth, their big eye following you...
The story written by the automaton displayed at the City Hall is appearing gradually, but backwards. And the closer we get to the beginning, the more people are dieing... Parts of it make me think something is wrong, or something is going to happen. The newest page describes Mister Tenk handing over a sack to Mister Mornington. A sack that Sebastian gave him. And in the last page of the book, I wish I had listened to Triky. Both events, as far as I remember, did not happen yet. I can't recall Triky saying anything to me in the context of a disastrous future, and Triky died two years ago... As for Sebastian, I have no knowledge of him giving a sack to the Mayor. And Sebastian disappeared after the Beast was used to host Moriarty's brain. I believe he might have returned to his tomb, along with the other knights of Malkuth.

I will be sneaking into the next airship departing to Steelhead... I want answers, and think Miss Margo December, Loki's grand-ma, could give them to me. I have not seen her around New Babbage lately, and Steelhead was the town she came from, so this might be my best chance to find her... Triky was a part of Willard Steamweaver, who Margo was engaged to. And she was a member of the Thirteen Club, before becoming slightly nuts... Even if the trip leads to a dead end, at least I would have tried something. I just can't stay sitting around knowing that my friends are marching to their death.

Wish me luck.

Visions from a future

2011-10-09T20:22:00.001+02:00

It's been almost a year since I last wrote in here, and I think this may be because I have been too shaken up by what happened.
Whoever would like to relive the Black Heart mystery should be able to do so by following the clues scattered around town, but the conclusions drawn by those events are that the monks of Malkuth resuscitated to fight the Beast have been destroying all of the Van Creed places around town, and that the Beast itself is at last gone. Well, those are the good points... In truth, I hate having to admit that I have been used by this creepy insane man to "fix" the Beast and call back to life the most dangerous Evil that Babbage has ever known.
I have trouble to sleep at night since Jason Moriarty came back. I wake up from my nightmares and see shadows creeping around me. I do not only fear for myself, but also for all of my friends.

I guess he stayed quiet and hidden during the last months, because there was not more trouble than usual in the city. He had been spotted a few times though, at the Oiling festival, and more recently in the Port, where he had an apparently courteous conversation with two other gentlemen, although anyone knowing him would get shivers running down their spines listening to what he said.

A few days ago, a coded message came to the attention of Mr Tenk, and many citizen gathered at the Town Hall yesterday to find out what would be happening.
Gadget thought it was all a trap, but we just were all too curious to stay away.
Suddenly, the vision of a door flickered right in the middle of the meeting room before vanishing. It was like a ghost door, appearing for just a few seconds in our world and then going back to limbo.
I looked up to see if someone was playing a trick on us. I heard you could make a big image appear in the air, with some light and a smaller image. Just like making animal shadows on a wall with your fingers maybe. But there was nobody in the gallery, and soon we heard Tepic screaming outside.
We all ran out of the Hall to see a big shiny twirly sphere of light right up in the sky in front of the City Hall's stairs.
I s'pose it was a kind of a gate because a huge airship came through it and landed at the bottom of the stairs in a roaring noise. A very old looking man got off from the vessel and walked up to us with difficulty. He asked for the Mayor and as Mr Tenk stepped forward, he gave him a little box.
We were all quite puzzled, but we couldn't ask many questions as he seemed to be in a hurry. He just said "Do not believe him." and then went back into his ship, speaking to himself, hoping he would be able to make it.
We just watched him flying back up and disappearing behind the City Hall when suddenly a loud BANG noise resonated in the air. Loki rushed towards the corner of the City Hall and we followed him to see the wreckage pieces of the strange airship cluttering the cobblestones, smoke billowing from the burning metal.
We looked amongst the pieces, but no body was to be found... He must have desintegrated completely, or burnt to ashes...
Back at the bottom of the stairs, Mr Tenk somehow opened the box the old old man gave him, which liberated a kind of bot. With an open book in front of it.

Mister Tenk transported it into the Hall of exposition, or Hall of Inventions, I don't remember how it's called... There we examined it better, and after the Mayor triggered it, its mechanical arm started to move and write signs on the book in front of it.
Miste Tenk was in awe at the details of the mechanics and I'm afraid he is planning on taking it all apart to see how it works... But we still managed to take a look at what the bot was writing and I have to say that I didn't really like that story...
In the meantime, a newcomer arrived, and introduced himself as the new supervisor for the Van Creed society. He said he was sent as a replacement for his predescessor. I guess he was talking about Jasper Renfold, who ended burnt by Willard Steamweaver in the middle of the City Hall.
That new Van Creed guy was interested in the Writing Bot and I think he wanted to take it with him, or maybe just to read what it was writing, but we were all around and not looking particularly friendly. He didn't seem to mind though, and said he'd just come back later.
By now, we have learnt not to trust the Van Creed bunch, even though they can be quite informative sometimes. We thought they had all been destroyed by the monks of Malkuth, but I suppose some of them had survived, or maybe they are all over the world anyway and the Malkuth couldn't find every of their little hideout... The presence of that new Van Creed supervisor does mean that they are coming back to Babbage though, so something big is certainly going to happen soon... Big and not actually pleasant.

After he left, we talked about what had happened, and what was written in the book. Zaida said that the very old man who came through the gate smelled like Jimmy, but Jimmy answered he didn't smell (which is true, except when he's been running in the sewers).
Then we started to question what was written in the book. Why was it talking about us? Why was there Mr Tenk, Miss Kaylee, Mister Cleanslate in it? Why Victor Mornington and why Jimmy, Triky and I? How did that old man know about us? And why that story talking about us described such an apocalyptic chaos in Babbage...?
Mister Mornington told us about the time gates... That would be just like the gate between worlds that Moriarty opened with the Professor Eliot's device, but it would link two different times instead of two different worlds... That is quite hard to believe really, but some details are very troubling :
1) The airship the very old man was flying looked a lot like the one Jimmy built for the AetherCorp. Except fancier, with more stuff on it.
2) In the book written by the Bot, Jimmy is sent back by Victor, in a kind of time travel capsule.
3) Zaida thinks the old man smelled like Jimmy.
So could that old man be Jimmy from the future sent back to us? And maybe the time travel makes you grow very older..? Or maybe he travelled a lot towards other times before finding the right one?
The idea of this old man being him upset Jimmy a little I think, but he's tough, he should get over it, and the Professor Kristos Sonnerstein said he could come to see him whenever he wanted if he needed to.

If we believe that time travel can exist, then the future described in the book written by the Bot is not nice at all... All of my friends dead, except Jimmy, who is gone somewhere in his capsule, Piermont Landing in flames, the whole of Babbage covered in crabby things that sound quite nasty, and a man, who appears to have triggered all of that. A man who can flash electrical energy from his fingers.
I know of a man whom I think would be able to generate this future world of chaos. That same man who already once brought Old Gods swirling like Doom over New Babbage with their huge tentacles. This man who was still thought to be dead last year, before being brought back to life in a new body, a new potentially invincible body...
Jason Moriarty.

If this is true, then we need to do something to stop him. The urchins will be having a secret urgent meeting tonight in the hideout, and hopefully, Gadget can tell us about this new society they have been planning with Nat, and the devices he has been working on.

While sitting in the hideout, waiting for the meeting to start, two questions keep circling in my head.
Who is this person that the old man told us not to believe?
And why, in the book, my character regrets not to have listened to Triky?

I guess the time is not yet to come when I will get some nightmare-free sleep...

The Beast takes a Bite...

2010-11-28T12:07:00.003+01:00

I have not been around the streets of Babbage much lately, and of course everything seems to happen while I'm not there...

Gadget's "Beest Trap" has been tested by the beast itself, but sadly it has been defeated... And Nat got injured in the process, victim of the beast's ferocious appetite. Gadget managed to photograph the Beast, and Nat explains it all better than me in his journal.

He also told me about that hooded man Gadget and him met and who warned them about the beast. He seemed to know it very well and try to protect us urchins from it.

I questionned Nat about that man and he answered he looked like a monk, but able to fight, and that he had a huge belt, with a symbol on it. And that symbol, we already saw it last year on a stone behind Loki's shops in the cobblestone houses, and on the tombs in the crypt of Malkuth...

Those tombs are the ones of three grand worshippers of Malkuth, according to the letter found on the table in the room Arthur Celtington was renting above Loki's shops in the cobblestone houses, across the canal from the Absinthe cafe.

When I asked Mister Underby about Old Gods last year, he told me that Malkuth was the God of our world, the material plane, and that there were ten worlds in total, all ruled by a different god, and that our world was the "lowest" one, where Malkuth was all powerful, but that in the nine other worlds, the other gods would beat him up. Also, the letter about the Worshippers of Malkuth says something about Malkuth being a kind of connection between our world and the others, which strangely reminds me of the gate opened by Jason Moriarty above the Old Imperial Theatre, three years ago... Maybe the gate has never been properly closed and some influences from the other worlds still manage to reach ours, "waking up" the beast inside the statue, or even letting it slip into our world whereas it wasn't there before?

About at the same time, or soon after, Mr Cleanslate intercepted a radio message from the Van Creed, stating that their headquarters were being attacked by hooded robed men... Seems too much of a coincidence to me. Those men must be Worshippers of Malkuth. Why attacking the Van Creed headquarters though? Do they have something to do with the Beast that the Worshippers of Malkuth are looking for? Did they bring it here? Or do they just have useful informations about it? Could be. The Van Creed seem to have files about everything and everyone..

Whatever the Worshippers of Malkuth do to stop that Beast, it is not enough, and Miss Bookworm and Mister Baroque found an awful puddle of blood next to a child drawing of the Beast and a teddy bear right in front of the City Hall... We believe it is poor little Victor Wunderlich aka Ally Wunder who got snatched by the Beast... Searchings of the sewers and catacombs have been carried out and the Babbage Militia has been warned, but for the moment, no sign of Victor...

Last of all, Mister Blindside, the archaeologist hired by Loki, seems to have disappeared as well...

And it all begins...

The Black Heart.

Urchin Beest Trap!

2010-11-21T23:21:00.003+01:00

When I arrived in Babbage Square this evening, to check on the statue, I saw Gadget with his puppy Socks, talking with a gentleman and a lady.

(photo credit : Gadget Starsider)

He told me that a beast had tried to eat his puppy and a man in a black coat ran after it, telling him to stay behind.

I asked Gadget what the beast was like, and he said it looked like a giant baby covered in blood and it was saying "Gobble... gobble..." and it wanted some flesh.

(photo credit : Gadget Starsider)

Poor Socks looked very shocked!

Gadget thought that the beast might have something to do with the open statue, and I agree, now remembering what Mister Blindside the archaeologist said about the scar in the statue looking like some frightening symbol of womanhood. Was that "baby" born from the statue?

Either way, Gadget decided that he wanted to take a picture of it, and he found a huge photographic equipement. He also decided that we should trap the beast, and he started to set up some wires across the street.

He's not called "Gadget" for nothing. He's got all kinds of things in his pockets and can build ingenious devices in no time.

He soon finished to set up his trap and then we thought that would be better to add a sign for the citizen of Babbage who can read, so they don't trip on the wire and get caught too.

Soon, the sign was ready and placed near the trap, and Gadget triggered it to demonstrate how it would work. Whoever would pull the wire on the ground by tripping onto it would trigger the trap and get entangled and then hung upside down from the rope above inside a big rope net.

And we got another confirmation that the trap was working well when Miss Adele walked by and got caught too because she didn't read the sign...

Then Jimmy arrived and we decided to add a bait for the beast to be attracted there and walk into the trap. Jimmy made up a fake puppy and perched it onto the warning sign, but then Miss Adele pointed out that the beast could snatch the puppy without even triggering the trap and finally Jimmy attached the bait dangling from the upper rope right above the wire.

Gadget set up his photographic apparel in front of the whole, and everything was set and ready for the beast to be caught!!!

The Scar

2010-11-06T15:19:00.004+01:00

Yesterday night was the famous Bonfire and Fireworks night on the bridge between the Absinthe Cafe and the Old Imperial Theatre in Babbage Square.

Each year, Loki's celebration of the Fifth of November is attended by a major crowd of Babbagers, and this night was no exception.

The sky was set alight with rainbows of exploding rockets, and on its little raft on the canal, poor Guy Fawkes burnt to its death once more.

After that much applauded show, Jimmy decided to go back and see the Artifact, as it was just down the street from the bridge.

Soon, lots of other Babbagers followed him, and stumbled upon Mister Bernard Blindside, the archaeologist Loki had asked for help.

Mister Blindside was standing in front of the statue, staring at the bloody scar now ripping it open... He was gutted it got damaged like that, and even suspected it was a street urchin mischief night trick, but we swore we didn't do it. Which is true!

Then we asked lots of questions and Mister Blindside told us he estimated the artifact to be about seven to eight hundreds years old, according to his data, and that it was made of tough ceramic. A very well made ceramic too, suggesting that who ever had this made was of a high order. The blood though, if it was blood, appeared to be fresh.

And the heartbeat was gone.

Mister Holmes examined the scene, with his detective ways, and concluded the scar was made from the inside and not from the outside. He also said he would analyze the blood to find out if it was human, rat or something else.

Then everyone started to think aloud and give their hypothesis of what could have happened. Some wondered if something was inside the statue and broke free, or if someone opened it and released whatever was inside. Others shivered thinking the blood on the floor came from someone who was standing in front of the statue when it ripped open. There was a huge discussion about how on Earth it could have open from the inside, if the heat of the torch nearby could have helped the ceramic crack open, and if the thing was frozen inside and the blood flew out while unfreezing.

Then Mister Blindside observed it almost looked like a case casket for mummification and I jumped on the occasion to state that was my opinion too. I do think there was a mummy of some kind inside. With a beating heart. And blood obviously. And eight hundreds years old I guess.

But people wouldn't believe me and said mummies were dried up and organs removed and yadda yadda, and Mister Blindside added that it could not fit because the artifact was not Egyptian, and that early Medieval Dark Age did not have mummification.

Then Brother Riddler reiterated his hypothesis of the thing inside being frozen, and then they wondered how it could have survived the burning process of the kiln. And Miss Janus said the ceramic could have protected what was inside from the heat.

Mister Holmes said the scar was made from inside, and I believe him, because he must know. And Miss Aeon suggested that something or someone could have woken up the thing inside, even if they didn't rip the statue open themselves. And I agree with that too.

Mister Blindside then noticed we were refering to the big opening as a "scar" and found it interesting because it did look like one, and then he added something I'm not quite sure I understand : "or perhaps a terrifying symbol of womanhood". That remark got Miss Janus scowling so I guess it wasn't very nice.

Nat thinks that this is all related to Triky's death, as it happened at the same place. I told him the statue was eight hundreds years old and Triky died only last year... He replied that maybe he knew it was there, and maybe it gave him power joining his soul there. I'm not really sure, but thinking about it, Triky's death could be the trigger that slowly awakened the thing inside the statue.

Anyway, Mister Blindside is supposed to go to the library this morning and said he would report his findings to Mister Holmes and to Miss Janus I think.

In the meantime, we've got a monster of some kind wandering in the streets of Babbage... And maybe the one who woke it up?

Jason Moriarty's body was never found, was it...?

Raising from the Dead

2010-11-02T10:11:00.002+01:00

Jimmy and I went back yesterday night to the place where the statue was half buried, to see how the work of Mister Blindside the archaeologist was progressing.

The statue had now been totally dug out and raised vertically as if it was standing.

Jimmy said that he thought the heartbeat we could hear was louder than the last time, and also even faster. I can't say if it was faster, but that is possible. Although it may be louder only because it was still half buried before and so the sound was harder to hear?

Rich joined us soon after and he too was creeped out by the statue. To me, it more and more looks like a coffin. Although the "hole" in place of the face intrigues me...

Maybe Jimmy is right and it is more like a medieval knight statue. It would explain the bump in the front, looking like he is holding a sword under his robe.

While exploring the rest of the site, I discovered a very little hole in a corner, beneath the broken floor.

Jimmy, Rich and I wriggled down the hole and soon found ourselves walking in a dark, damp narrow way, from which we could smell very strongly the nearby sewers.

We reached a deadend, but as Jimmy stated, that looks like a good new hiding place!

The Living Statue

2010-10-29T19:12:00.003+02:00

Yesterday night, Jimmy and I went to the site behind the Old Imperial Theatre where Loki's old factory exploded last year, and where Triky died...

Loki had told us about some kind of pottery he found there while cleaning it up, and he called an archaeologist named Bernard Blindside to tell him what it was and if it was worth some money.

The rumbles were delimited by thin string lines and two little bottles had been left there, as well as digging trowels or something.

The "pottery" itself looked more like the emerged part of a stone-made statue of some kind. Like a hooded robed figure, a priest maybe. Jimmy said it looked like a medieval statue. Maybe a knight. I thought it could be a coffin too, with a skeleton inside.

We got closer to examine it better, and we started to hear a regular sound, definitely coming from under the statue, or maybe inside it...

The sound resembled a heartbeat.

Later, Caspian and Miss Sky and Mister Scottie joined us, and they too heard the heartbeat. Mr Scottie thought it might be a machinery inside the statue, and that it could have been triggered recently because nobody noticed the sound earlier.

I don't know. As Jimmy remarked, so many strange things happened in the last years, why not a statue with a beating heart?

Miss Sky looked at the statue and said the whole block could be the heart itself, as it was vaguely shaped like one.

Once again I don't know.

But I know I won't be sleeping in the hideout anytime soon. It's much too close to there and I don't want a live statue to come strangle me in my sleep!

I hope we can meet Mister Blindside soon. Maybe he can tell us how old that thing is, and WHAT on Earth it is.

Escapades grand opening (ex-Goony Island) on Friday 17th September 2010

2010-09-12T18:48:00.000+02:00

Also check out Loki's teaser here.
Parcels are for rent (I am building a windmill on one of them) and cabins too. See the plots available on the website and sign up on the forum to get all the latest news!

Goonies got talent !

2010-03-20T22:50:00.001+01:00

SteamHunt 2nd edition

2010-02-27T01:21:00.002+01:00

The second annual Steam grid wide Hunt will be starting on 1st March and lasting for the whole month.

Myrtil's Mess is participating and offering a cool animated clockwork shoulder squirrel as a gift (I'm number 86 on the list of stores in the hunt!!! And there are about 120 if I remember well...).

There is a poster you can click to get more infos at my store in Babbage, with a group joiner and a box of freebies for the Steam hunters.

Children !

2010-01-14T19:18:00.006+01:00

The next Aether Salon of Babbage (http://aethersalon.blogspot.com/) will be a talk and debate on what it was like to be a Victorian child and what it is like to play a victorian child in SL.

Miss Saffia Widdershins will give a very interesting talk, and Jimmy and I will also be there to explain our views on the victorian kids roleplay and answer questions.

If you are interested, come next Sunday 17th January at 2pm SLT :)

Babbage Palisade & Academy of Industry :

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Babbage%20Palisade/254/60/106

and

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Academy%20of%20Industry/2/56/106

Your soul or your life (Spoiler again...)

2010-01-12T20:23:00.025+01:00

!!! WARNING !!! :

Please read this first.

The blog entry that follows contains informations, and speculations about the New Babbage Chronicles Roleplay, Shadow of the Thirteen.
If you do not wish to get informations without trying to retrieve them on your own, or if you don't want to be influenced by my ideas on the case, please consider not reading any further...

Otherwise, well, just go on !

---------------------------------------------------------------

So yesterday evening, everyone gathered in the City Hall to hear what Mr Renfold had to say.

Quite a lot of citizen were there, all wondering why Mr Renfold had asked for an emergency town hall meeting.

Mr Renfold was waiting for everyone to arrive and settle in, while being as unpleasant as usual :

Jesper Renfold: quite a few children here, do they really contribute that much to the interests of New Babbage?

In the end though, he started to explain :

"My fellow Babbage residents for whom i am of service to, i have been sent by the Van Creed to inform you of the great Peril that might fall upon new babbage unless we act quickly.

As you might well know, objects have fallen from the sky, containing automated mechanical clockworks.

The Van Creed were worried at first due to the fact the moon seemed unaturally bright.

We have collected many articles of knowledge that date back to the great fire. Only a few items survived the fire, and some have pointed to a great threat coming from the moon.

Now it has come to my attention that some of you may have acquired information that connects directly with what is happening, and i believe that if we do not work together now, then we may be facing a catastrophe of the scale of the great fire."

You can imagine that the citizen were starting to fidget in their seats and speaking all at the same time, asking questions and wondering about what it was all about, or staying silent and thinking about what they had discovered.

The Captain Skusting talked about the rocket that had crashed into his Ruby's pub, and Mr Renfold asked him more about it. Mr Skusting explained what had happened and also told us about the automatons, that he was calling "live" barrels, as one of them had attacked him.

Jesper Renfold: yes ok, this is what we feared, we believe someone was expelled from not just Babbage, but from the world. We believe this person has abilities or scientific knowledge to raze Babbage to the ground.

Cries of surprise in the audience followed that statement.

Jesper Renfold: those 'live' barrels as you call them seem to be searching for something.

Again, people reacted in different ways. Some of us were already suspecting what the automatons may be searching for, but we said nothing.

We had learnt in the past not to trust the Van Creed, and the people new to town had been warned by the older residents. Mr Renfold would have a hard time getting us to give him informations...

He continued :

"I just feel that perhaps im waisting my time, you all waist your time with such folloys as treasure hunting, that when it comes to the real threat.... well, im just frustrated.

Some of you already know about the 13 club.

The Van Creed have worked with the 13 Club in the past, they are a great source for ideas and technologies years ahead of anything in Caledon and Steelhead.

There where many great scientists in the 13 club, one such scientist was Sir Willard Steamweaver.

Am I right in thinking some of you have heard this name already?"

Mr Renfold's piercing eyes were scanning the audience, waiting for our reactions.

Some of us said they had heard, some that they hadn't.

Mr Renfold went on :

"The Van Creed is not responsible for what the 13 club does, we are just interested in what they do and how it can enrich the lives of New Babbage residents.

The Van Creed have dealt with impossible men before, such as Jason Moriarty.

But what has us most concerned is the myth that Sir Willard Steamweaver gained immortality through his experiments.

So the question is how do we defend ourselves from a man who is immortal?"

After a wave of shock and excitement, the answers started to come from all sides :

Nikolas Souther: An ectoplasmic echo, perhaps. Some scientific remnant of his experiment gone awry.
Stargirl Macbain: The automatons are scanning for immortals?
Dierdre Maven: Destroy his soul?
Beq Janus: we trap him
Breezy Carver: Nods Beq
Myrtil Igaly: send him back to where he comes from?

Wallis Graves: If, as the notes suggest, he was using vampire and werewolf extractions he may have other abilities besides simply living longer.

Mr Renfold nodded :
"Capture him."

That seemed easy to say though, but not that easy in reality... And we soon pointed it out :

Beq Janus: Mr Renfold, if we were to capture Mr Steamweaver, or the creature that claims to be him. Would we be in danger by his presence alone?

Nat Merit: the question is, do we give him his soul or try to keep it from him?
Myrtil Igaly: Good question Nat
Nat Merit: because some of us think we know who the automatons are scanning for
Dierdre Maven: I think his soul was in the box that Arthur let out
Nikolas Souther: Nor may he desire his soul back in the first place.

I thought that Nat, Dierdre and Cyan were right. That Triky was Willard's other half of soul, and apparently, splitting his soul made him immortal. So, if, as Nat and Dierdre suggested, we gave back his soul to Willard... He would become mortal again and could be killed.

But... But that would mean that Triky would die too...

Mr Renfold was still talking about Willard :

"Some believe it was he who started the great fire. He might have even been the influence for the old tales of Angry Jenkins. There is articles suggesting he planed to use ....."

When suddenly...

Dierdre Maven: Oh bloody hell, not again!
Dierdre Maven: no no no no no!

A dark silhouette in a black hood, surrounded with live flames, had made its entrance in the round conference room of the Town Hall, opposite to Mr Renfold. We heard him shouting in a loud and inhuman voice :

Willard Steamweaver: MY SOUL, MY SOUL IS SPLIT

Everyone was frozen in their seats, horrified. Some little children were starting to cry.

Willard stepped towards the center of the room, flames raising more and more around him. He asked again, staring at Mr Renfold :

"YOU MUST TELL ME WHERE IT IS, I MUST FIND IT"

Suddenly, Mr Renfold erupted in flames and we all heard his groan of agony :

"ARGHHHHHH GHHH GAHH"

We had no time to do anything for him, not even throw a glass of water, as someone suggested. He was already dead... Leaving behind him a dust of ashes and his bag, that he had let fall on the ground in panick.

Willard turned towards us and asked again :
"WELL?"

The fire was creeping all around him. The heat was starting to become unbearable.

Willard Steamweaver: YOU MIGHT THINK ME A MONSTER
Willard Steamweaver: FOR HOW I AM, WHAT I DID
Willard Steamweaver: I ONCE LOVED A WOMAN SO MUCH THAT I WANTED US TO LIVE FOR EVER SUCH WAS OUR PASSION FOR LIFE TOGETHER

Nat and Dierdre thought they knew who was Willard's soul. And I thought they were right... They started to ask carefully about the consequences if Willard was regaining his soul... Triky.

Nat Merit: what happens if we tell you?
Nat Merit: what would you do to him?
Dierdre Maven: What does your soul look like?
Nat Merit: if you have your soul, will you die or be stronger?

In his way, Willard answered their concern :
Willard Steamweaver: ALL I WANT IS TO REGAIN MY SOUL AND DIE IN PEACE!

Which made them take their decision...

Nat Merit: I think we should tell him
Dierdre Maven nods at Nat
Myrtil Igaly: but Nat..

Myrtil Igaly: what will happen to his soul then..?

Nat Merit: I know
Stargirl Macbain tries to control her coughing, "Where is it!"
Dierdre Maven: Nat and I know where your soul is, kinda
Nikolas Souther: Then dear God, tell him!
Matthew Querrien: I agree!
Nat Merit: they'll both die in peace
Nat Merit: and we won't fry!

Dierdre Maven: It's an urchin in town

Suddenly, Willard turned towards the entrance :

"I can sense it, it is near."

I jumped on my feet and shouted :
"Noooooooo! DON'T TELL HIM!!!"

But it was too late. Willard had already rushed outside to go find his soul.

I ran out of the Town Hall and I tried to follow the string of people who had been faster than me and who seemed to lead towards Jefferson Way.
When I arrived, there was already a crowd outside of the old Loki's shop.

Willard was inside... And he had captured Triky...

From what Nat described later, Triky was looking terrified when Willard caught him. But now he was just laying on the snowy ground... inconscious...

Jimmy Branagh: 'ee's got Triky!

Myrtil Igaly: NOOOOO
Dierdre Maven: Good
Izzy Breadbin: IF he has his soul back, will he return from whence he came?
Jimmy Branagh: Are you sure?
Dierdre Maven: Yes
Nat Merit: he wants to die
Nat Merit: but Triky doesn't
Dierdre Maven: Triky is his soul Jimmy
Myrtil Igaly: we're not sure at all

I tried to step closer to the shop entrance, but the heat from the flames surrounding Willard and Triky was so hot that it made me suffocate.

Dierdre Maven: Myrtil get back
Myrtil Igaly: but we must stop him!!!!!!!
Dierdre Maven: Nat hold Mytril back
Matilda Twine watches, horrified
Jimmy Branagh: Mybee, but 'ee mye not go back.
Nat Merit: he's going to destroy babbage!

At this moment, the dark shape in the middle of the flames seemed to be turning his head towards us, and he asked :
"You understand this must happen yes?"

I shouted my answer :
"NO!"

Nat tried to reason me :
"Myrtil it has to or babbage will burn."

And Miss Dierdre replied to Willard :
"You need to be at peace."

At this moment, Willard exclaimed in a terrible voice :
"FOR YEARS I HAVE SAT IN MY PRISON LONGING FOR THE DAY THAT BOX WOULD BE OPENED!"

And he vanished in a sudden explosion...

Bricks, pieces of wall were flying everywhere. People were screaming, terrified. The fire wouldn't stop. Some persons were stuck under parts of the building that had fallen onto them...

I managed to drag myself out of the chaos and ran towards Jimmy and Loki, who were standing in front of Mr Pearse's shop.
Loki was witnessing in despair the fall of his old shop. He asked where the "freak" had gone and where Triky was.
I told him Triky was dead and I burst into tears.
I couldn't believe it, that wasn't possible, we had to save him...

Myrtil Igaly: Triky is trapped inside him now
Dierdre Maven: Triky was not real, he was just energy made up to look like an urchin
Myrtil Igaly: maybe we can save him
Jimmy Branagh: Oy don't think so Myrtil
Myrtil Igaly: Triky was real!!!
Matthew Querrien: Tricky was half a soul.

I stomped on the ground, sending snow into the fire.

Soon, the Ladies Fire Brigade of New Babbage arrived, and managed to put the fire out before it damaged any other surrounding buildings.
They really were efficient and everyone congratulated them.

Then someone told about the bag Mr Renfold had left in the Town Hall and documents they had found inside.

I was still sad and empty because of Triky's death, but I decided to head towards the Town Hall, to see what those documents were about.

There were two files into Jesper's bag. One concerning Willard Steamweaver.

And one concerning Margo December.

Both documents were very enlightening.

The file concerning Willard explained his theories on the way to achieve immortality. He had split his soul into two parts, and neither could die. He was immortal, and so was Triky.
But when both halves became one again, he became mortal again, and died...

The file about Margo was describing her as a brilliant scientist, and that was a pity to think that she had now lost her sanity. Maybe one day... Who knows...

Speaking of Margo, she reappeared while I was looking into Jesper's bag in the conference room of the Town Hall.

Dierdre Maven smiles, "Hello Miss December."
Loki Eliot: erm... hi grandma?
Dierdre Maven: The moon should no longer bother you Miss
Jimmy Branagh: That yer grandma Loki?
Matthew Querrien: No more three, Miss December. No more Lover, Loved and Jealous.
Margo December: i rememebr now, he felt me oh yes, he touched me, deep in to my soul
Margo December: but he wanted me in a bottle like a pickeld onion
Dierdre Maven: That doesn't sound good
Margo December: and he worked , did he yes, and pickled away, and that man
Margo December: the man who game me the musical box, for my thing, my things that are mine, that i lost
Loki Eliot: oh great my grandma is bonkers
Matthew Querrien: You're not exactly sane yourself, Loki.
Margo December: he was the one i gave my son
Jimmy Branagh: She's not! She very cute.
Margo December: the moon the moon has gone
Margo December: he is now one the moon is but one and he is gone
Margo December: for the one who was two could live for ever and ever
Margo December: but he took two and made one and is gone now for ever and ever
Beq Janus: Is Steamweaver still at large Margo
Margo December GASPS!
Nat Merit: steamweaver is ...was the moon
Nat Merit: he's died
Margo December: he is gone
Izzy Breadbin: Well then.. that settles that.. or does it?
Margo December sobs lightly
Beq Janus: he is gone.
Beq Janus: hmm
Fax Quixote: My condolences, madam
Jimmy Branagh: Awww
Beq Janus: and the barrels
Myrtil Igaly: apparently it does..
Dierdre Maven: He is at peace now ma'am
Beq Janus: they will cease now?
Myrtil Igaly: So Triky can't be saved......
Margo December: do you now why he is gone? hmm do you? hmm??
Nat Merit: he split his soul
Nat Merit: to live forever
Margo December: aww little triky
Izzy Breadbin: Was Triky ever truely his own entity, or simply a puppet?
Beq Janus: no ma'am
Nat Merit: now he's one soul
Nat Merit: and could die
Matthew Querrien: The two are one, Miss, and the one became zero.
Margo December: alex and triky, close they was, oh so sad it is
Myrtil Igaly: Triky was my friend..
Beq Janus smiles sadly at Myrtil
Margo December: you look so young for someone so old
Nat Merit: did triky kill Arthur?
Nat Merit: or did the box?
Jimmy Branagh: Yeh, 'ee wos a friend.
Matthew Querrien: Who, miss?
Loki Eliot: i dunno if i can handle a grandma whos like this
Myrtil Igaly: She's nice, Loki
Jimmy Branagh: Yeh, she's very noice.
Myrtil Igaly: I would like a grand-ma like that
Dierdre Maven: You should be nice and carry that big ole bag for her
Nat Merit: and she has lightening powers!
Beq Janus: can she not stay with you now
Margo December: loki, what a funny name, who in their right mind names their child Loki?
Myrtil Igaly coughs
Beq Janus: Margo
Loki Eliot: hey!?
Beq Janus: Miss Decmeber
Dierdre Maven: Your son did Margo
Beq Janus: Loki is your grandson
Beq Janus: Loki Eliot
Myrtil Igaly mutters : "Who in their right mind would call their son Halfrid?"
Margo December: i lost something once, long time ago, on a brige, and old brige
Nat Merit giggles
Beq Janus: Alexander was his grandfather
Matilda Twine giggles
Matthew Querrien: Myrtil! [surprised look]
Margo December: i know many stories you know, maybe you boys and girls would like a story?
Jimmy Branagh: Yes please ma'am!
Alaex Aeon: yes please
Myrtil Igaly looks innocent
Matthew Querrien: I'd love to hear one, Miss.
Dierdre Maven smiles
Nat Merit: yes please
Matthew Querrien sits on the floor and listens.
Margo December: there was once a man, yes a man

And suddenly, she ran off.

We thought she was going back to the Old Bridge.
Or maybe the short moment of semi-sanity was lost, and then she had forgotten what she was actually doing here.

But what she had said wasn't necessarily less true.
Willard was gone. And Triky would never come back...

Lots of questions remain though. The first one being the one that started all that : Who killed Arthur Celtington and why? Because he had discovered and open the box?
Will we know one day...?

I set up a memorial for my friend Triky, at Loki's old shop location.
With a candle, because he loved so much the fire.

I am still sad of what happened. And I will never forget him...

The Man in the Moon (Another Spoiler)

2010-01-11T20:03:00.024+01:00

!!! WARNING !!! :

Please read this first.

The blog entry that follows contains informations, and speculations about the New Babbage Chronicles Roleplay, Shadow of the Thirteen.If you do not wish to get informations without trying to retrieve them on your own, or if you don't want to be influenced by my ideas on the case, please consider not reading any further...

Otherwise, well, just go on !

---------------------------------------------------------------

Big crazy day yesterday… What with crashing rockets and chasing around Van Creed representatives and scaring mad old ladies and floating flamed immortal man from the moon looking for their soul…

Ok, I guess that might be better to start from the beginning.

Yesterday afternoon, I met Cyan, who told me he heard about a rocket being crashed in the roof of the Ruby’s pub.
So we went to see…

That was one huge rocket, much bigger than the barrels…, crashed upside down into the balcony, its tip coming through the ceiling of the pub.

There was one round window and the door was open, letting us see a comfy inside with an all pillowed seat. Human sized.

Soooo clearly someone had landed here and left the rocket… Could that be the person who launched the automatons-containing barrels already? Willard? Did that come from the moon or like Triky seemed to think, were they “marshins” ?
Looking around didn’t give us any clue… No foot prints in the snow, nothing.

Going back to Loki’s Absinthe café, I learnt that Jesper Renfold had just left it. Apparently he had been to go see the rocket too and told my friends (who had been following him all the way to the café) that it wasn’t dangerous, but that what was inside, on the other hand, might be the most dangerous thing to befall New Babbage.
Questionned about Alexander Eliot and the body in the wall, his answer was :

Wiggy Undertone: What, may I ask, is of interest to the Van-Creed in this matter?
Jesper Renfold: in which matter? Alexander? bah, silly myths about old stories lost to time
Jesper Renfold: the objects falling froom the sky, thats another thing entirly
Wiggy Undertone: I'd heard about those. I found an empty barrel, nothing more.
Wiggy Undertone: Is there some connection between the barrels and the murdered man at the theatre?
Jesper Renfold: i would not think so, it has been seen that mechanical robots that somehow scanner you for some unknown reason, there is no reason yet to believe they would kill a man
Wiggy Undertone: What are they scanning for? Any idea?
Jesper Renfold: regarding the death of Arthur Celtington, it would seem he got into trouble while seartching for fantasies
Jesper Renfold: we have no idea what they are scanning for
Wiggy Undertone: I see.
Cyan Rayna: Actually he looks as if he was disfigured enough to not be able to really tell who he was.
Nat Merit: did you know him? you said Arthur when you saw him?
Jesper Renfold: no i did not know the man, should you boys be in a place like this?

While I was at the café, one of my friends spotted the bag lady outside, and we decided to follow her to ask her questions about the moon and anything she may know.
We followed her to the Port, where she was admiring a statue of a merman and confusing people, and we tried to talk to her. I asked her how she was called but she wouldn’t answer. She kept telling the same silly things over and over. She also kept walking one way and another, forcing us to follow her back and forth if we wanted to continue the discussion.

(Photo credit: Nat Merit)

At one point, she decided to leave totally and headed towards the Town Hall.
She was quite fast for an old lady and we had to run to catch-up.

Nat saw her coming from the sewers under the Town Hall and then we followed her in the little alley behind the Cobblestone houses, but there, we lost her…
So we decided to hop on our hover karts to be faster and started the hunt.

I can’t describe the long and silly hide-and-seek game we had to play with the bag lady, but it seemed like everytime we had found her, she disappeared again.

We flew until the Old Bridge, where Kaylee was working on her Reality-enforcing device and she shouted us that if we were looking for the old lady, she was headed towards Wheatstone. We landed next to Kaylee to ask her what the lady had told her, and she said :
Kaylee Frye: Something about putting something back before the moon returns
Kaylee Frye: And that she stood on the old bridge before it broke

Mr Tenk was standing along the canal a bit further and we went to ask him again what the old lady had told him. He repeated what Kaylee had said about the moon :
Mosseveno Tenk: she was going on about how she had to put something back before the moon found it.
And so we flew back up to head towards Wheatstone.

Finally, we saw her entering the sewers in front of Mr Salazar Jack’s Kahruvel Steamworks and landed in Jefferson Way.
We heard her talking with Mr Sixpence :

Nightshade Sixpence: those cylinder things?

Margo December: sent by the moon
Margo December: i can here them they are above
Margo December: they are coming
Nightshade Sixpence: who sent them?

Suddenly, Triky warned us that she was behind us, running down the street and we hopped back on the kart to fly towards the Cobblestone Houses.
We stopped there and rushed towards the back alley, where the entrance to the crypt of Malkuth was, and heard voices again, coming from beneath us.

(Photo credit : Nat Merit)

Margo December: now my things my things are all i have now
Nightshade Sixpence: what is this place for?
Nightshade Sixpence: can I see your bag?
Margo December: what place?
Nightshade Sixpence: this Lab
Nightshade Sixpence: how did you know to come here
Margo December: its dark and old
Margo December: i must put it back
Margo December: he told me when the moon returns to put it back
Nightshade Sixpence: you know what this equipment is for?
Nightshade Sixpence: who told you?
Margo December: ive put it back now

(Photo credit: Nat Merit)

Nightshade Sixpence: a music box?
Margo December: i like this song
Nightshade Sixpence: it is nice
Margo December: the man was so nice
Margo December: i remember him, he was so handsome
Nightshade Sixpence: alexander?
Margo December: he came to me when i was at the hospital
Margo December: they said i had an accident
Margo December: that i lost alot of things
Nightshade Sixpence: or willard?
Nightshade Sixpence: what accident?
Margo December: i...i.... dont rememebr
Nightshade Sixpence: where do you live now?
Margo December: he told me, that when the moon returned to put it back where it belongs
Nightshade Sixpence: the Moon?
Nightshade Sixpence: whats wrong with the Moon?
Margo December: it wants

We saw the bag lady leaving the crypt, and we agreed on not following her anymore. We went to the stone, said the words and got down into the crypt to see that thing she had to put back when the Moon returns.

We found the little music box on the table near the cylinders.

And after examining it attentively, we noticed a message inside the box... It was written :

My final words are located where the lion, sword, urchin and key meet each other under the watchful eye of the 13 club.

We decided to get out of the crypt and headed towards Loki's cafe to think about all that.

There, we sat together and started to think about the words we had read on the paper inside the music box.
Those were strangely familiar… Lion, sword, urchin, key. Yep, they were the clues we had to find and that led us ultimately into the crypt.

The sword first, on the painting of the Saints beneath the train station, then the lion, carved in the Palisade wall somewhere in the Academy area, just before the wall turned towards Clockhaven. Then the little urchin, stuck under the last bridge on the canal leading to the Vernian Sea, and finally the key, carved on the bottom of the lighthouse in Clockhaven.
The last words of the Professor Eliot had to be found at the point where all four clues would meet…
So we decided to draw a map, to find that point, and Cyan rummaged in his backpack and showed us a map of New Babbage that he had. As Nat said :
Nat Merit: the stupendous six are always prepared!

Cyan installed his map against the bar and we started drawing on it before the curious eyes of Loki who had no idea what we were doing.

Miss Dierdre Maven arrived in the bar, and she joined us, as she had found the music box too and jumped to the same conclusion.
We placed the four clues on the map, and drew lines joining them, forming a big cross.

The centre of the cross was roughly located at the end of Abney Park way, and we jumped on our feet, packed the map and started to run towards the place.

Once there, we started looking around. Triky asked what we were looking for and we took another look at the notes we had about what was written inside the music box :
My final words are located where the lion sword urchin and key meet each other under the watchful eye of the 13 club.

Suddenly, Cyan exclaimed he had found and he showed us the metal lamp post standing there on the pavement. On the bottom of the post, we could notice the symbol of the Thirteen Club…

Hidden inside, we found a map, clearly drawn by children and showing the location of their Fort.

And another cylinder. The second of Alexander Eliot’s recordings. Here is the transcript :

Alexander Eliot's Second Recording :
-------------------------------------------
It took a while for me to realise what she had done.
We were about to get inside the steam carriage when all of a sudden there was an almighty cry. A sound not unlike a man crying his last breath before death.
I looked down the street to see Willard standing with his arms raised by his side. But this was not Willard as I remembered him. This was not a professor of science, this was not my friend since childhood.
This that stood before me was not even human. And yet, with familiar words, he spoke with resounding piercing truth :
"ALEXANDER, how could you betray me so viciously. And MARGO, all this, everything I have ever done, everything I have ever dreamt, I did it all for you, and this is how you show your love? "
A sick feeling of fear and regret sank through me, as I watched in astonishment as Willard's body erupted into flames, and I scrambled into the steam carriage shouting at the driver to leave with haste.
Looking out of the carriage window, I saw flames shooting through the air from building to building, then the carriage rocked and tumbled.
I held tight to Margo and our baby son, until the carriage came to a halt before kicking the door open.
The streets were ablaze, Babbage was an inferno! People were screaming, families running for their lives, jumping from windows to their deaths to escape the flames.
Chaos, utter chaos.
And above it all, I could hear Willard's painful roar of anguish.
I pulled Margo to her feet and made our way through the crowd of running, scared Babbage residents, towards the old bridge and to safety.
Building were collapsing all around, the screams of those trapped and burning alive ringing through our ears.
I saw an urchin kicked to the ground, unable to pick himself up, so I grabbed the scruff of his worn coat, and pulled him to his feet, before and herding him along with Margo.
The heat was unbearable as we ran down the cobbled streets. Men fought bravely to throw water from the canals onto the flames to stop them from spreading further through Babbage's beautiful buildings.
But the fire could not be stopped.
As we crossed the bridge, my name was called, and I turned to see Willard, his body ablaze.
"MY SOUL, my soul is split, I can not die! I am to live eternally broken because YOU took from me the one thing that completes me! I HATE YOU ALEXANDER AND I HATE YOU MARGO! I HATE YOU BOTH!"
With those final words, fire erupted from him and I would have been engulfed in flame if it were not for Margo.
Her research into the mind afforded her abilities that some still can not comprehend. It was as if a shield had been placed around me, and then, she was there beside me handing me our child.
"GO ALEXANDER, you must save our son."
There was no time for reflection, for goodbyes or considering other options.
She pushed me towards the bridge and I ran across.
One quick glimpse back allowed me time to see Margo and Willard locked in a fight of inhuman powers. Blue and orange lights flashing and lighting up the burning town around them. Then a large explosion caused the old bridge to collapse, and that was the last I ever saw of her.
A month later, I learned from a colleague that the 13 Club had captured Willard.
Being that he was apparently immortal and could not die, the Lord Masters decided that the best option was to banish him from this world. And so it was that Willard, or what was left of the man, was rocketed to the moon, where he is to this day.
And so, you know now the truth. The true reason for why Babbage burned.
It was not the result of any local accidents. It was because a group of men believed they could understand the power of gods. Like children playing adults with a loaded pistol, ignoring the simple things that often are taken for granted. The love and respect for your fellow man.
I still hold fondness for the memories of I and Willard as boys, when we used to play in the tunnels under Babbage.

And I will always… Always miss Margo.

So Willard had really been rocketed to the moon…

And after seeing the rocket crashed into the Ruby’s roof, we suddenly feared he found a way to finally come back to Earth and… do what? Look for something apparently, if the scanning automatons were also his doing. Something or someone. But who? Margo? Something else?

Another thing that the Professor Eliot said made me listen attentively. That little urchin he took with him in the carriage… Could that be… Could that be Jason? We know Jason Moriarty was his protégé, and became his apprentice. That the Professor Eliot pulled him out of the streets and took him under his wing. That little urchin in the recording could very well be him.

But even after all the bad things the Professor Eliot had done, I could not help but feel some pity for him and some sadness for his and Margo’s destiny. Having to be apart at the very moment where they could have started to be together… And never see each other again anymore.

I was sad for Margo. She had lost her man and her son in one awful day. And if, as we thought, she is none other than the bag lady who left the music box in the crypt, then she had also lost her sanity…

Nat thought that those 13 club guys were awesome and Cyan added that we should make a new 13 club of urchins.

I agree.

Taking another look at the children’s map, we noticed the “13” indicating an entrance into the sewers, and decided to go and find the secret “Fort camp”.

At that point, Triky had gone to sleep and the others had ran far ahead of me, so they had already spent a fair amount of time exploring the sewers when I arrived next to the manhole labelled “13” in front of the Kahruvel Steamworks.

I was about to climb down when I heard an horrible cry, something almost inhuman, shaping itself into words resonating loudly in the foggy air :
Willard Steamweaver shouts: WHERE IS MY SOUL!!!!

I ran towards the train station, thinking that the voice was coming from there, but I saw nothing. Just heard the same cry again, louder, closer.
Willard Steamweaver shouts: WHERE IS MY SOUL!!!!

I ran back towards the sewer number 13 to get into the sewers, thinking that the voice was coming from down there, when I stumbled upon Nat, climbing back up. He was very pale and looked scared.
Nat Merit: did you see the clue down there?!
Myrtil Igaly: no
Nat Merit: OK
Nat Merit: I'm a bit freaked out by it

I was wondering what he was meaning, but my current concern was the cry I had just heard and so I asked him if he had seen the person shouting. He said he hadn’t, but heard him. But Dierdre and Cyan were with him in the sewers and they saw it. A hovering dark form engulfed into flames… Flames, as Alexander had described Willard in his recording…

Nat had disappeared again into the sewers, and I climbed down myself. I hopped on the raft floating there and started to sail inside the tunnels, looking at the children’s map to find my way around.

After a while, I had arrived under the Town Hall and spotted Nat, Cyan and Dierdre discussing together :
Nat Merit: he's the one in the crow mask holding a green bottle all the time
Nat Merit: myrtil, how long have you known triky?
Myrtil Igaly: hum
Myrtil Igaly: a few months
Myrtil Igaly: why?
Nat Merit: you not see the most recent clue
Myrtil Igaly: no not yet
Nat Merit: it shows us Willard was called Triky as a kid
Cyan Rayna: Has he always had a thing for pyro
Myrtil Igaly: !!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Nat Merit: yes
Nat Merit: spelled Triky
Myrtil Igaly: where is it?
Cyan Rayna: Thats odd
Nat Merit: it's at the 'fort' shown on the child's map
Nat Merit: willard's looking for the other half of his soul
Myrtil Igaly: no...
Myrtil Igaly: he wants Triky
Nat Merit: and we have a pyromaniac urchin called the name he had as a kid
Nat Merit: we think he wants triky
Myrtil Igaly: yes that sounds right..

I hopped back on my raft with the others to go to the “Fort” indicated on the map, and we soon arrived in front of three dark tunnels entrances.

At the end of the first one, a wooden plateform was installed, against the wall, above the water, and boxes, wooden swords, a kind of table with a large drawing on it, covered it.

I jumped in shock when I noticed the inscription painted on the box under the table…

Dierdre Maven: What is trikys last name?
Myrtil Igaly: Jinx
Cyan Rayna: Nice.
Nat Merit: ji-- yeah
Cyan Rayna: Jinx...
Cyan Rayna: curse
Cyan Rayna: poor guy
Nat Merit: we think Arthur opened the box
Nat Merit: let Triky, Willard's soul-half out
Nat Merit: Triky burned him, maybe
Nat Merit: he does like fire
Nat Merit: a lot
Cyan Rayna: Or Willard soul took over the body of an urchin

Only thing we could do now was try to find Triky and ask him more about his past… Maybe tell him he’d better hide.

And go attend the extraordinary town meeting that Jesper Renfold had asked the Mayor to announce for the day after…

Brainstorming (WARNING : SPOILER)

2010-01-09T16:34:00.040+01:00

!!! WARNING !!! :

Please read this first.

The blog entry that follows contains informations, and speculations about the New Babbage Chronicles Roleplay, Shadow of the Thirteen.
If you do not wish to get informations without trying to retrieve them on your own, or if you don't want to be influenced by my ideas on the case, please consider not reading any further...

Otherwise, well, just go on :op

**********************************************************************************
I have eventually decided to take the risk and put on writing everything my friends and I have found so far about that body in the wall of the Imperial Theatre, as well as my ideas on the subject. Hopefully it will help me understand better and maybe the obvious will just jump at my face!

The Captain Skusting Dagger was there with Loki, Triky, Kaylee and I when we were examining the body, and he noticed that he looked burned. He was completely disfigured and yeah, seemed liked he was lacking a bit of flesh on the face... Although it didn't look totally rotten.

Only things we could still see was a torn scarf around his neck and thin spectacles on his nose.
Oh and, a piece of map on the ground just in front of him... I said that already, didn't I?

The map was showing the theatre, Loki's Absinthe cafe across the street, and the cobblestone houses across the canal from the cafe. Both the theatre and cobblestone houses were circled in red and a red cross was indicating the rear of the cafe.
And at the back of the map, it was written "'No.3 Cobblestone house'" as far as I remember...

So we decided to go take a look at those Cobblestone Houses... We crossed the canal and looked at the shops. Four doors. The third one from the left was giving on a staircase leading to a big room. Nobody inside but a bed, shelvings and a table in the middle.

A table covered in papers...

Covering almost one half of the table, was laid a big map of New Babbage, and next to it, several letters, one of which I spotted immediately because of the "Van Creed" symbol on top of it.

I read it and recognized the signature of my "old friend" Mr Jesper Renfold, the representative of the Van Creed in New Babbage, whom I had already met last year when Jason Moriarty had returned and was seeking the Cloud Angel.

The paper was one of the files the Van Creed seem to have on everything and everyone, and this one was concerning the Thirteen Club.

Another of the documents was a letter from a guy named Charlie and who was talking to his friend Arthur. The symbol on top of that letter was another one I seemed to remember from the past years... Maybe the Freemasons?

From the letter, it appeared that Arthur had left Babbage Square and wanted to come back to investigate on the Professor Alexander Eliot's murder two years ago, or just because he was interested in what the Professor was working on.

And his friend Charlie apparently found the room in the Cobblestone House for him.

Another letter was signed by Arthur himself. Arthur Celtington. And was directed to Jesper Renfold.

In the letter, Arthur was asking Mr Renfold for help from the Van Creed to give him informations about the Thirteen Club and its members.

He seems to have been searching the Professor Eliot's old room and have found a box with a picture of the "old god Malkuth" on the lid, but he didn't manage to open it.

There was actually a little box on the other side of the table... With a kind of skeleton drawn on the lid...

But that box was open. And empty.

And another symbol could be seen in the inside of the lid. A "13".

No clue as to what was inside or if there was something at all...

Apparently, Arthur did look for informations about that Malkuth, or maybe the Van Creed gave them, because the last piece of paper to be found on the table was a report about the Worshipers of Malkuth.

It tells of the ruins of a Monastery hidden below New Babbage and three grand worshippers buried there in a tomb filled with gold.
It says that the Monastery stood there before the Great Empire fell and that it got burnt to the ground by people seeing it as evil.

And it speaks about a quartet of old gods linking the world of Man and the other worlds : Malkuth, Yesod, Hod and Netzah.

My head was starting to hurt a little so I decided to go out and breath some fresh air.

Of course, I couldn't help but going back to the Imperial theatre and just while I was arriving at the back door, I saw Loki running away. Then I heard a voice I knew coming from inside and I rushed in...

Mr Jesper Renfold was there, in the middle of urchins and citizen, looking at the body in the wall. He was saying that the Professor Eliot would be proud of his grandson Loki, and then he recognized me and he even asked Triky if he had burnt any other school recently. Yeah, it was really like he knew EVERYTHING.

And then he turned to the body, got close, examined it and just said : "So this is where Arthur ended up."

(Photo credit : Nat Merit)

Arthur? Like the one from the letters? Seems like we may have identified the dead body in the wall...

But who killed him? And why? Or how did he land in that wall? And why is he so disfigured?

Something in the letters found in the room of the Cobblestone House made me run towards the Absinthe cafe and use the rope hanging in the back to get on the roof and then into the Professor Eliot's old room.

Arthur wrote that he had found the box there. And the cross on the map was right on the Distillery, above which the Professor Eliot's room is.

I looked a bit around and saw the letters dating back from when the Professor had been murdered by Jason Moriarty... I searched the bookcases full of dust and suddenly stumbled upon a piece of paper stuck between two books.

I think I read it twice before understanding anything, and I still read it today without being sure of what it means... Was this letter in the box found in Arthur's room? Or was a symbol found in the box leading to somewhere where that letter was? Who wrote it..?

It tells about the Great Fire of New Babbage and seems to imply that the causes evoked in the Archives wouldn't be the real ones. And the writer seems to think his soul may need salvation in the future...

And... It says the box shouldn't have been opened...

While I was reading the letter, Matilda came in, and I informed her about the recent events. The customers in the cafe beneath us were apparently hearing us because they suddenly asked me about the Van Creed I had mentioned. So I climbed down.

Loki was serving customers and the Father Pizarro was sitting at a table. Mr Wiggy Undertone and him were quite interested by knowing more about the Van Creed and I indulged their curiosity as well as I could.

And after a while... :

Father Pizzaro: How fascinating
Myrtil Igaly: Yeh... But you'd better read the book cause I don't remember all of it very well...
Loki Eliot: New Bababge is a hive of activity with science and invention, they are always watching to see what can be explited
Myrtil Igaly: they say it in the letter in the Cobblestone house
Myrtil Igaly: The Van Creed have files on EVERYTHING
Myrtil Igaly: they know all, watch all, control all
Father Pizzaro: Files on everything, you say?
Father Pizzaro smiles
Myrtil Igaly nods
Myrtil Igaly: Mr Renfold, he knew the corpse in the theatre
Myrtil Igaly: and he knows Loki
Myrtil Igaly: and he knows me
Myrtil Igaly: and he even knows Triky!
Father Pizzaro: One wonders how that would compare to the records the Church keeps.
Myrtil Igaly: Do you have files too?
Father Pizzaro: We do keep records to document history. As well as our research.
Father Pizzaro: As would any organization.
Myrtil Igaly: with an aim?
Loki Eliot: hey you dont think?.... nagh,
Myrtil Igaly: think what?
Father Pizzaro: With the aim of history.
Loki Eliot: well... i dunno, maybe jason is back?
Myrtil Igaly: he fell from the plateform...
Loki Eliot shudders at the thought
Father Pizzaro: Those that do not know history are doomed to repeat its mistakes.
Myrtil Igaly: he can't be back
Loki Eliot: yes but no body was found, and this is new babbage
Myrtil Igaly: but why would he come back anyway??
Myrtil Igaly: he must be weak!
Myrtil Igaly: do you think he killed that man?
Loki Eliot: most of babbage history went up in smoke during the great fire i ve been told
Myrtil Igaly: when was it?
Father Pizzaro: Good evening. Thank you for the conversation.
Loki Eliot: before we was born
Myrtil Igaly: Oh Father
Myrtil Igaly: Is that possible to take a look at the Church files?
Loki Eliot: thank you father for staying and listening :)
Father Pizzaro: I am sure some records were preserved in the Church vaults under the old city.

On this, the Father Pizzaro got up and left the Absinthe cafe. I wanted to follow him to ask him again if I could take a look at the Church records, and where they were keeping them, but he was quite fast and I lost his sight.

I then resumed my clues hunt.

The end of the letter found in the Professor Eliot's room mentionned the train station and something beneath its tracks.

I went to the Babbage Square train station with Matthew and Nat and we found a hole in the ground leading to a hidden crypt in a part of the sewers.

Three tombs were waiting there, overlooked by a great wall painting picturing Saints.

(Photo credit : Nat Merit)

The letter was saying that we needed to find the one who held the sword of flame, and indeed, we found three pieces of paper hidden behind the sword on the painting.

The writing on those letters was exactly the same as on the paper found in the Professor Eliot's room, and later discoveries convinced me that they had been written by the Professor Alexander Eliot himself.

While down there in the crypt, Matthew and Nat mentionned having seen the old lady wearing a huge bag we had already met in front of the Town Hall when we were examining the crashed barrel. They told me she wanted to stop them from going down in the crypt and saying that only the dead went down here. And then she told them :

"Oh you found the rabbit hole, nice down there, safe from the moon he wont find you down there, good little children."

And then she started rambling :

"Three, three... always three...

Father, Son, Holy Ghost.

Lover, Loved, Jealous.

The Sun, the Earth, the Moon.

Look out for the moon, as it wants you all."

At the end of the letters, cryptic words were supposed to lead us to the next clue. We eventually managed to find it (after passing in front of it a hundreds times without seeing it...) and this clue led us to another one, with which another letter was attached.

I know the Professor Eliot was working on the properties of human blood as it was actually Loki's blood that ultimately activated the Porta Terrarum device his grand-father had invented, when Jason Moriarty tried to open a gate to another realm and let the Old Ones enter ours...

But I didn't know he was also working on body regeneration or immortality. As I understand the letter, his friend Willard was most interested in those discoveries but the Professor Eliot was starting to realize they were far from controlling what they were attempting..

The last clue led us back to the Cobblestone House where Arthur had his room, and we looked around a bit before Jimmy finally found a stone in the back alley, holding the symbol of the Old Gods, that was drawn on the paper attached to the last clue.

He spoke the name of the Old God Malkuth and a noise indicated us that a door had been unlocked. Jimmy pushed the wall behind the stone and we followed him and fell into a dark and dusty crypt, full of scientific material...

(Photo credit : Nat Merit)

Three tombs again, were waiting down there, closely sealed, but on their lid, the same symbol as on the stone was carved. Could it be the crypt they are talking about in the letter found in Arthur's room? The worshippers of Malkuth? The tomb was supposed to be filled with gold then...

Instead we examined the laboratory, the curious torture chair in the middle of the room, and found a letter on the table.

A letter from Margo, the one who was supposed to be Willard's fiancee in Alexander Eliot's letters. She is writing to Willard, and calling him also Wilfrid. And she is saying that her child was from the Professor Eliot! Loki's grand-father!

Margo would be Loki's grand-mother!!???

Next to the letter, on the table, were laying several cylinders. We used the machine sitting on the end of the table to listen to them.

Here are the transcripts my urchin friend, Matilda Twine, and I, tried to make of the recordings :

First Recording :

------------------

This is Alexander Eliot.

Sir Willard Steamweaver had been conducting experiments on himself in an attempt to gain immortality. But the Thirteen Club had become very concerned with the ethics behind what he was attempting and sought to stop him, causing him to go into hiding.

-------

I felt a loyal duty to help my long time friend. I supported him with food and money and also attended to his fiancee Miss Margo December while he was deep in his research.

During this time, I and Miss December fell in love. I do not regret this, I had secretely loved her ever since I had joined the Thirteen club. And to see her giving up so much for a man who had quite frankly lost the sight of what truly mattered in this world, it inspires the gentleman in me to take action.

Soon Miss December was with child. Our child. I went to Willard. I went to explain everything. But he assumed it was his child. And my cowardice prevented me from doing the done thing.

Before I knew it, I was returning home with a hangover.

Weeks went by. Months. And still I did not tell the man the truth. His research became more insane. More daring. Human testing! He started to talk about splitting a soul. About the Old Gods and Malkuth.

Eventually, Margo gave birth to our son Halfrid. Such a beautiful boy. I had never been so happy in my life. But in the back of my mind I knew that if Willard was ever to find out in his current state of insanity, it was dangerous for Margo and our son.

So I insisted Margo collect her belongings and made arrangements to leave the town at night. But I was foolish. I was foolish to not respect the love she once held for Willard and masking it as an errand before we left, Margo visited Willard's secret lab one last time.

This would lead to the greatest catastrophes Babbage has ever witnessed. For myself, the biggest heartbreak my life has ever had to endure.

Wilfrid Steamweaver's Cylinder Recordings :

--------------------------------------------

Entry 1 :

---------

So I have moved my lab to beneath the cobblestone house. Unknown to most it's a crypt to the Church to Malkuth. Left over from when the old (townsmen ?) destroyed the Church, killing its monks.

I actually have no idea what the date is. I have been hiding so long as time has left me. It's a dark crypt. And I find it ironic that my final discovery should happen at the place of Malkuth worship. But my work must continue if I'm ever to succeed and save us both.

Entry 2 :

---------

I fear I should perhaps explain why I am here before I move on to the experiments in hand. My name is Sir Willard Steamweaver. A son of New Babbage educated in the Academies in Caledon. I'm a member of the Thirteen Club.
For the last 6 years, I have been studying the way to extend life and, more to the point, attain immortality.

I have gathered many notes on vampires and lycanthropy and researched the many scriptures and ancient beliefs on the subject.

And I do believe there is a scientific possibility.

Alexander, the great friend of years, has also been supporting me, while the Thirteen Club have turned their back on me. I thought the whole point of the Thirteen Club was to support brilliant figures like myself. The reason I left the Academy to come to New Babbage in the first place.

Not long now, a few more tests need to be made before I can start self tests.

Entry 3 :

---------

Margo and I had an argument that ended in me losing my temper and striking her. Her judgement has become clouded due to what's being said amongst the Club members. Why does she not understand the possibilities we'll gain from immortality? I love her so much. But with this technology, we will always be together, forever. And never apart. - Sigh -

Alexander has told me he will take care of Margo and explain everything to her. Good old Alex. I've always been able to count on him. Since we were boys running through the sewers of Babbage. He's always been there when I need him most.

Entry 4 :

---------

The research has not gone to plan. Something is wrong but I can't figure it out. To make matters worse, I have had no time to see my fiancee in weeks. Alexander assured me she is fine. A little under the weather perhaps, but nothing to worry about. Ah, I am frustrated.

Entry 5 :

---------

Alexander tells me that Margo is with child! We celebrate with a fine glass of Absinthe. It's not long before we are on the floor laughing. This news is such a boost of my confidence. Now I have a child to save along with myself and Margo.

Entry 6 :
----------

I've started human tests on vagrants that no one will notice missing. Tests indicate that the strange reaction to the chair will cause the human body to deteriorate almost immediately. I'm missing something obviously, yeah. I'm not sure what.
I'm quite positive I can get things back on track.

Entry 7 :
---------
All tests suggest I'm on the verge of a breakthrough. The last subject showed signs of no body deterioration although he has been horribly disfigured by extreme heating of the body. I believe I have finally fixed this issue and am ready to try it on myself.
Oh! If Alexander and Margo were here, to see my final days of triumph!

Scary...

Hearing about that man's experiments made me remember about Jason Moriarty, and even the Professor Eliot.

The Professor Eliot did test something on Jason, who was his apprentice at the time. Even if Jason was a volunteer, that's still human testing...

And later, after Jason became a werewolf and started to drift apart from the Professor's views, he tested his own version of the Porta Terrarum device on urchins he thought nobody would notice if they disappeared. He killed Lucas, the little ghost of the theatre... He killed many more kids...

And that Willard was just the same. Just trying his experiments on people and throwing them away without a second thought when that failed.

All that happened in the past. Long gone past. But Arthur was certainly not murdered that long ago... He did come, seeked answers, and found a death I imagine more horrible than anything he could have thought of.

His death awoke the past, and more important, it means that someone who knows the past... or someone FROM the past, didn't want him to find out.

We must know.

I walked to the Old Bridge near Iron Bay and found Mr Underby's house. I knocked on the door but he wasn't home. I left a note for him to meet me at the Absinthe Cafe because I had questions to ask him.

I saw him later that day at the Cafe and he accepted to answer my questions.

Myrtil Igaly smiles uncertainly : Hello Mr Underby and thank you for accepting to meet me
Myrtil Igaly: Let's have a seat?
YoYo Underby: How may I be of service?
Myrtil Igaly nods : I will be short
YoYo Underby: You wanted to know about the Old Gods?
Myrtil Igaly: I heard that you were well versed in the Old Gods history
YoYo Underby: Yes, I have some knowledge
Myrtil Igaly nods : Please
Myrtil Igaly: I was just wondering if you knew anything about a god named Malkuth
YoYo Underby: Yes, he is the god of this world, the material plane.
Myrtil Igaly rummages in her pocket and takes a little piece of paper out. She looks at it and adds : "And... three other gods named yesod, hod and Netzah?"
YoYo Underby: There are ten worlds in total, all ruled by a different god.
Myrtil Igaly: OH..
Myrtil Igaly: You mean our world is under the rule of Malkuth but there are nine other worlds out there?
YoYo Underby: It should really be Netzatch
YoYo Underby: And yes.
YoYo Underby: The other nine are worlds "above" ours, in a sense.
YoYo Underby: Some call them heaven, but it is a sloppy sentimental word.
Myrtil Igaly: oh...
YoYo Underby: And not at all accurate.
Myrtil Igaly: and what about those three other gods I told you? Are they related especially to Malkuth?
YoYo Underby: They can be brutal, and also beautiful.
YoYo Underby: Yes.
Myrtil Igaly: Why?
Myrtil Igaly: What is their relationship?
YoYo Underby: The worlds are tests for folk like you and I.
YoYo Underby: Well, Malkuth is all powerful here, but in other planes these other gods "trump" him in stature if you will.
YoYo Underby: He is something of a custodian of this world.
Myrtil Igaly: Oh..
YoYo Underby: I'm afraid I must go for now... perhaps we can talk again soon.
Myrtil Igaly nods
Myrtil Igaly: Thank you again for talking to me
YoYo Underby: It was a pleasure talking with you.
YoYo Underby: Not a problem miss.
YoYo Underby: Good day.
Myrtil Igaly: Good day to you

I had to let Mr Underby go, even if I have more questions to ask him. I look forward to meeting him again. I am wondering what Malkuth is able to do. If his worshippers believed that he and the other gods could open gates to the nine other worlds above us.

I have also been to the library, to read the Archives of New Babbage, and here is what it says about the Great Fire :

The Great Fire of Babbage occurred a few decades ago. It is said possibly a third of the town was destroyed and another third damaged by the fire which started in what is now known as New Babbage. Most of Port Babbage, the canal district and Clockhaven were left untouched. Old Babbage, Wheatstone and Babbage Square had to be rebuilt. Many of the underground Sewer systems predate the building above. The fire was apparently started in just one street. A bakery was blamed, and also the Royal Oak inn which was at the time holding a reception for a young married couple. Some also believe that Angry jack had set fire to a street Urchin and let the boy run around setting fire to near by buildings as he scrambled in distress. Most believe the Royal Oak story though. Since most of the buildings were built just after the fall of the Great Empire, the materials used in those times where cheap wood structures. So it was no surprise that these houses took up flame so easy. "Before long the fire had swept through a third of our beautiful town, many of it's residents burnt to death trapped in their homes, many more left homeless and pennyless. So blinded we had become with our achievements since the Great Empire fell, that one small fire brought all our hopes and dreams crashing down" - John Stewert, journalist at the time of the great fire of New Babbage.

If we believe the Royal Oak story, we could imagine that Willard started the fire, and that the young married couple could have been the Professor Alexander Eliot and Willard's ex-fiancee Miss Margo December. But... But Alexander and Margo were supposed to leave the city. They wouldn't have taken the risk to get married in New Babbage knowing that Willard was around...

In the recordings though, the Professor Eliot seems to think that the Great Fire of Babbage may have been provoked after Willard read Margo's letter.

And in Willard's recordings, he mentions the fact that his experiments induce an extreme heating of the body leading to a disfigurement of the test subject... Burnt... Like Arthur. Would Willard have tried his experiments one more time and something would have gone wrong? Would he have set a fire unintentionnally? Or is it not his doing at all..?

And about Arthur... Did he found the crypt and decided to try the immortality experiment on himself, like we discussed with Nat, Jimmy and Matilda? Or... Did someone knocked him on the head and then tried the experiment on him? Maybe even Willard himself... He could still be alive. He could even be... immortal.

So many questions.

And while we are all running around looking for old stories, things keep falling from the sky. That is what Miss Breezy said she heard Jesper Renfold tell.

Satoshi, Nat and I followed Mr Renfold to Perdido Street, where another barrel had fallen from the sky and crashed on the ground. He seemed frustrated he couldn't arrive earlier to see what was coming from inside the barrel and he blamed it on me because I asked him about the bag lady, causing him to delay. But I had to know. Matthew said Mr Renfold was looking for her. I wanted to know why. She must be of importance...

(Photo credit : Nat Merit)

More barrels, more barrels. Everywhere in New Babbage. Jimmy and I heard one had fallen in the Academy and we rushed to go see it.

The barrel was crashed there, but also a kind of automaton with big pliers and a little propeller. It was hovering around, scanning people and saying "result negative".

It is apparently looking for something, or someone. Yes, most likely someone, since it is only scanning people. But it didn't find it yet.

Folded, the automaton could fit perfectly inside one of the crashed barrels. And there seems to be automatons wandering around every spot where a barrel is crashed.

What are they? Who are they looking for? Where are they coming from and who built them?

Those things are pretty dumb. They just go to the closest person to scan them and they keep pushing them around. They seem to be harmless though. No visible weapons, and they didn't attack us... And they do explode quite easily when one shoots them...

(Picture credit : Kaylee Frye)

Miss Kaylee made a map of where the barrels had fallen, to try and see if there was a pattern. But to me it looks pretty random. All over New Babbage.

I would assume the person sending them wants to cover the largest superficy possible to find the person he's looking for. Cause yeah.. I think someone is sending them. I think someone intelligent did build those things, because they are too dumb to be here by themselves.

The bag lady is awfully scared by the moon. She says it wants us all, that we have to hide. I was thinking... Maybe those barrels come from the moon? Maybe someone managed to travel to there and sends his automatons to bring him someone from Earth back? Maybe... Willard is there and wants his Margo back? It's silly I know.

Only things we can do is keep looking for informations, try to find that Charlie who wrote the letter to Arthur, try to find Willard and Margo... Loki's grand-mother. Maybe Halfrid Eliot, if he is still alive? Loki never talked much about his father. And watch the Van Creed. Why are they interested in the bag lady?

Oh, I hope she doesn't die...

Deeper and Darker : Shadow of the Thirteen

2010-01-06T15:39:00.007+01:00

Here we go again.
It seems like New Babbage isn't happy when nothing grim and atrocious happens...

Another crashed barrel has been spotted in Port Babbage apparently, and Mat told me that the Captain Dagger had been fighting evil boxes... or something like that.

BUT that is not the atrocious thing I was talking about.

No, I was talking about that stinky body Loki found in a wall of the Old Imperial Theatre while he was renovating it.

A disfigured dead stinky body sticking out of the wall... With a scrap of paper on the ground, drawing a map and circled houses...

And to add more suspicion, Mr Jesper Renfold, from the Van Creed society, has again been seen in the area and seemed to know the person in the wall. He called him Arthur...

We wandered around, we looked at the map, we found things... Intriguing objects, troubling letters... We met strange people.

And instead of getting a straight answer, the clues got us deeper and deeper into an inextricable muddle.

We're stuck.

But as I rethink about all that, I am starting to be vaguely aware that this one is not only a simple murder affair but something much bigger and older. Much older than I am and even older than lots or all of the buildings in New Babbage... And it involves dark and mysterious powers...

And then Loki said : "well... i dunno, maybe Jason is back?"

I dearly hope not!

I will just stay quiet on what we have found so far. If Jason Moriarty is involved, if the Van Creed are involved, then killing someone won't bother them.

Anyway, what is that box?

Find it out by yourself if you dare :

http://www.shadowofthe13.co.uk/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2LiMXjG014Q

But you have been warned!!!